Of Avatars and Harbingers
by The Shadowscythe
Summary: Humanity, a species that has been invaded twice by the Ethereals, their thrall species and occupied by the ADVENT coalition have finally left the Sol system and expanded into the stars. They knew the Ethereals feared something bigger & badder than themselves. They knew the Protheans has been wiped out by the same threat. The time of the cycle has arrived and extinction awaits all.
1. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 1

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 ** **/-/ 7th November 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Serpent Nebula /-/ Widow System /-/ Citadel /-/**** **  
** ** **/-/ Command Deck of Pan-Human-Union/XCOM "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/****

* * *

Jane Shepard averted her eyes a moment too soon and her retinas caught the after-glare of another vessel violently exploding. The after image of the Reaper's main THANIX cannon was burned into the back of her eyes – she could feel the _ _final__ moments of the vessels crew as they died violently.

Some were incinerated outright by the controlled ferromagnetic beam as it sliced the vessel forward to port and then across to starboard.

Others were killed by the explosive aftermath. A few by sudden decompression, some impaled by debris – others suffered a slow strangulation in space as shock forced their bodies to inhale in raw vacuum.

Shepard's eyes rolled in her skull as she felt the afterglow of pain and loss flow through her, forcing her mind back into the dark recess she had created a century and a half ago to hide her psyche from the sheer horror of the battle before her.

Another war, the First Ethereal war. Another race hell-bent on the systematic annihilation of every species they could find for their own perverse goals.

"Holy HELL, That was the 'Valentines Kiss'!" Pressly swore aloud as he too held on to the edges of his crash-couch – watching the scores of Pan-Human-Union vessels, Turian warships, Asari warships and a rare few Salarian vessels attempting to fight off the 2 kilometer long form of Sovereign and it's allies.

The hull shuddered as the Omaha took another, lesser blast from the enormous flotilla of Geth warships the Reaper had brought with it from beyond the Persius Viel – but the vessels Primary shields held against their less than impressive plasma rounds. In the molded crash-couch of the pilots seat Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau was blasting curses both physically and mentally into the void, despite the man's assured non-psionic status he had little to no mental barriers and was busy mixing his own piloting skill, scathing insults, professional knowledge of his enemy and sheer anger at the fact that _**-**_ _ _YET ANOTHER GODDAMN ALIEN WAS SHOOTING AT HIS BEAUTIFUL FUCKING SHIP__ _ **-**_ so loud almost every psionic crew member on the deck could hear him.

He rapidly moved a series of holographic interfaces using both his hands and retina targeted motions to reposition the Omaha to present her primary weapons to the enemy, the 790 meter long "Frigate" turned on a dime, pouring primary power from it's three Elerium power plants into the twin spinal mounted Particle accelerator cannons that ran down the ships cental line.

Split seconds later the ships already dimmed lighting faded out completely for milliseconds as the combat lights and other non-essential systems shut down so the Mass Effect compressed Superconductive coils that allowed the particle accelerator to achieve it's gigatons of space-borne destruction into birth.

Sheppard watched as the twin white beams surged forth from the ships nose and impacted against their target – a Geth "Dreadnought" twice the size of the Omaha. It's kinetic barriers registered for a moment as the Particle beam dispersed against them, and then pierced through – burning through the Armour of the offending vessel and burning through decks, power conduits and data-cores. No atmosphere vented from the ship, the Geth simply didn't need to have one – so the internal fires didn't catch or burn for even a fraction of the time they would have done on an organic vessel. What did happen however, was the internal and external lights on the Geth ship dimmed and the Mass Effect cores deep within the ship ruptured – unable to hold their keep against the several million ton vessel, the Dreadnought simply split apart along it's previous heading through the conservation of motion.

Moments later the wreckage of the first ship impacted on another, acting akin to a giant shotgun. The second vessels kinetic barriers held for moments longer until they too failed and the second ship was impaled by the wreckage of the first and both vessels where incapacitated.

"Weapon officers!" Pressly called aloud to the dozen or so other crew members along the Omaha's corridor like bridge "I want a Plasma Barrage along these co-ordinates so we can move in towards the Citadel!"

Along the Dozen monitors, the navigation holo-pit and Joker's own displays a dozen targets where marked for annihilation by Superheated Plasma-fire.

"Joker!" Pressly continued "Give me line of fire on that god-damn super-dreadnought as soon as you can and send the firing patterns to every P.H.U in the fleet, I want that thing DEA-"

Pressly never managed to finish his sentence however, as his voice was overpowered by the thunderous roar of inhuman tones, the Reaper Sovereign had finally managed to hack the Pan-Human-Union Naval data Arrays linking each ship's combat intelligence systems, and a new voice threaded with hatred, superiority and death flooded through the decks of every single ship in the Widow system regardless of race or purpose.

 **"** ** **WE IMPOSE ORDER ON THE CHAOS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. YOU EXIST BECAUSE WE ALLOW IT. YOU WILL END BECAUSE WE DEMAND IT. NOW DIE."****

The effect was universal – Jane knew exactly what it was, and technically as a Psionic she was supposed to be immune, but she could feel the clutches of the mechanorganic being known as Sovereign clawing at the edges of her mind.

Indoctrination.

Her grasp on the steel grips of the crash-couch tightened as her inner light flared. To those not initiated or non-believers of Psychic powers, the force of will imposed from within flares out through the eyes and palms as a purple/blue glow that spreads and expands where the user demands it, much like the blue/white glow of Citadel Biotic abilities.

But no Biotic could achieve what she and a thousand other psychics in this battlefield could do – it was a simple ability, a means to enforce one's own will against external stimulus, not too unlike the indoctrination the Reaper battleship was successfully pushing through every open comm channel, video link and even the vacuum of space itself as the impossible ripples of not-heat spread across the dull blue crustacean shaped starship.

Waves of Psionic "Solace" spread from herself and the thousand other Human Psychics – forcing an aura of calm aboard every Human vessel, and a few non human ones where XCOM had allowed psionic operatives to be placed – in effect she was forcing the entirety of Sovereigns indoctrination into herself and cancelling it out so the others around her would not have to bear it's burdens. An ability that unfortunately had a cost to pay as blood began to ooze from her tear-ducts and every inch of body hair turned bone white from root too tip.

The effect however was instant – Human vessels began to separate themselves from their Combat Intelligence networks and operate independently – turning what would have been a rout into a renewed fight.

The Pan-Human-Union fleet turned half their attention towards the Geth, and the other half towards Sovereign directly. It needed to be stopped at all costs, not just because of the rest of the Reaper fleet waiting in dark space but for what this meant for Humanity having suffered 36 years and 6 billion lost souls at the hands of the Ethereals and their thrall races and the ADVENT coalition to create their Avatars to fight these ancient machines.

Now however, the Ethereals where long dead, and Humanity was all that stood between the Reapers and the systematic extinction of every sentient life-form in the galaxy.

Particle beams cut paths across space, splitting Geth Vessels asunder. Pulse lasers and beam lasers lanced from point to point at the speed of light itself. Coilguns and Mag Cannons spat out thousands upon thousands of mass effect field contained depleted uranium slugs per second, green/blue plasma-fire cut between ships which was then followed by Fusion beams and launches of Elerium enhanced nuclear warheads and yet humanity was still being cut asunder.

A death by inches.

Pan-Human-Union ships where shattered by combined Geth fire, turned upon by Citadel ships now indoctrinated by Sovereigns wrath, or worse still – decimated by the Reaper itself as it lazily turned a tentacle every so often and cut a blood red line against the purple hues of the serpent nebula.

XCOM shields, reverse engineered from ADVENT shield-bearers so long ago and upscaled to capitol-ship sizes could only withstand for seconds before they failed against such an onslaught. The kinetic barriers beneath them failed in even quicker time, and the Human vessels so often flaunted by the Citadel races as being an affront to the treaty of Farixen churned, boiled and burned.

Tens of thousands dying by the second. Yet XCOM and Pan-Human-Union ships continued forward as they burned themselves apart.

"Distance to enemy ship 50 thousand kilometers and closing!" Joker yelled from his crash-couch, as he keyed in the mathematics required to fire the twin particle accelerator cannons the weapon control teams did their best to move and fire with VI support to keep the Omaha free from enemy fire.

"I Have a firing solution!" Joker yelled aloud, he didn't want or need authorization to fire as the twin particle accelerator cannons spooled up, the combat lighting dimmed again and the Omaha spat force the dual streams of apocalyptic energies.

Nanoseconds later, too fast for most sentient minds to accumulate, let alone react too – almost every other surviving XCOM and Pan-Human-Union vessel fired in unison.

The void between the Human ships and Sovereign wavered and par-broiled as the beams of energy combined and coalesced together and punched at 99% the speed of light and impacted the reaper and the combat view screens where blinded by the combined energies, even the holo-pit's sensors before Pressly and Shepard couldn't tell them if the offending vessel had survived the barrage.

A heartbeat later however, they did.

The human race never knew the capabilities of the Reapers, only that the Ethereals feared them to the point of nearly driving themselves extinct to perfect their psionic energies to not only withstand indoctrination, but also fight back against them. Before they could go extinct however the Ethereals then moved through the stars at STL speeds moving from world to world culling entire species, destroying their culture, languages and even their genetic codes as a means to belay or reverse their self imposed entropy so they -could- still fight the eldritch machines. The last race to nearly suffer this fate was Humanity, and although the Citadel and it's races thought the tales of the First Ethereal war, ADVENT Occupation and Second Ethereal war where fabrications with "some" elements of truth they never truly believed the fact that the Prothean race had never built the Citadel nor the Mass Relay network.

Humanity however knew that fear of extinction all to well, the events that started in 2015 and cascaded through to 2041 had wiped out three quarters of the human race. 6 billion souls lost. Now the fate of the galaxy may hand trillions more to a future worse than death itself.

The holo-pit's fuzzy white spheres of projected energies faded and the shape remained, illuminated in blood red target recognition reticules – not only was Sovereign undamaged, it had taken the full brunt of the attack against it's hull instead of it's impressive shield arrays, an act the arrogant machine-god simply did not need to undertake.

For the first time since 2019, on the bridge of the Temple Ship where Jane Shepard had thought she had saved the human race by shunting the entire vessel somewhere . . . outside of reality, she felt fear.

 **"** ** **THIS IS WHAT YOU FACE. WE KNOW THE GIFTS THE BACTERIA RACE LEFT TO YOU AND THE UNIVERSE BENDS TO -OUR- WILL."****

Every word cut like a knife through the skulls of every Psionic human in what remained of the combined fleets – despite the Solace fields projected by those with the ability to do so, they could feel the claws and desperate biting, gnawing, devouring presence the Reaper was projecting against them.

 **"** ** **NOTHING STANDS AGAINST US. WE ARE YOUR DESTINY."****

Sovereigns tentacle machadendrites twitched and targeted the Human fleet and the Omaha directly.

 ** **"END."****

"Evasive Acti-" Joker started as the Omaha fired it's emergency thrusters, but the action was a moment too late – the Omaha caught the ferromagnetic blast from it's forward plating, cutting directly through the main Particle cannons and moving up through the crew quarters. The primary shield arrays had sprung to live but failed under the sheer power of the weapon and the kinetic fields had done the same.

Fire erupted from the ships midsection and Jane Shepard's world lurched violently to the left, her vision was filled with sudden, painful white light and she passed into unconsciousness.


	2. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 2

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 **/-/ Time Unknown / Place Unknown /-/**  
 **/-/ Cathedral-Bridge of the Ethereal Temple Ship /-/**

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Jane's head pounded as she poured the depths of her psionic energy into the Ethereal device. The last few hours had been an almost endless assault against her senses, her physical and mental abilities – but the mission had to succeed. The very future of the Human race depended on the outcome of "Operation Avenger".

Mere days ago the Ethereals had begun a series of terror attacks in London, Casablanca, Rio De Janeiro, Sapporo, Minsk after years of research lead to XCOM finally being able to both track the Ethereal "Overseer" ship and then take it down with flights of Firestorm interceptors armed with multiple plasma cannons that chased the damned thing from continent to continent until it was downed quite thankfully in the middle of the Saharan Desert.

The death of another set of Ethereals always advanced XCOM's Cause, and the retrieval of the Ethereal device has left . .

. . . no, had lead. Had lead too the development of the Gollop Chamber, and the Volunteer and her allies . . . many would fall.

No, many had fallen – her friends had already died.

Jane shook her head, the pacific ocean that had been beneath the Temple Ship had vanished – so had the skies surrounding the vessel and the clouds above, the Temple Ship seemed to be within an ever shrinking cloud of haze, in the distance she could see the blue/black clouds that danced with electric sparks slowly growing closer towards the vessel.

A presence behind her made itself known – she turned and faced the corpses left behind from the final assault, there was nothing else here but her and shredded and charred dead meat. The remains of both Aliens and the corpses of the unit that used to be her friends laid strewn across the floors of the decking around her.

Yet she could feel the other mind, almost as if the words had spoken inside her head. NO – they where being spoken. Jane struggled as she lost grip on the plasma rifle in her right hand and let the weapon clatter to the floor. Something was very, very wrong with her perception of this place.

 _ _Yes new one, you have connected with us. You have seen what lies ahead.__

It wasn't so much a psionic connection, like the ones the Ethereals had forced into the minds of those around them before Jane, Annette, Mikado and the others had gunned them down. It was as if the thoughts had already been thought by another presence before her, and was trying to make themselves known to her in the right order. It was beyond disconcerting – she forced her memory to replace the events as she knew them in her head over and over again to attempt to bring reality back into being.

 _ _My name is Jane Shepard.__

 _ _Her name is Jane Shepard.__

 _ _I AM MASTER SERGEANT JANE SHEPARD. XCOM OPERATIVE, MASTER LEVEL PSIONIC X-29101980__

 _ _SHE WAS JANE SHEPARD. THE ONE WITH THE GIFT.__

The more she pushed her version of reality the more the "other" thoughts would slide in alongside them, giving her thoughts the horrifying aspects of being past, present and future tense. Which was when one of the future tense thoughts slid its way through to her present tense thoughts.

Big Sky had dropped off the assault team as Xcom Firestorm Interceptors began their attack and distraction runs on the Alien fleet surrounding the Temple Ship, that big beautiful bastard had actually made strafing runs across Alien battleships in air-to-air combat in order to drop her and the rest of the squad aboard. Over the next few hours they had fought and bled together through waves of Sectoids, Cyberdiscs and Drones, Thin Men, Floaters, Chrysalids, Mutons, Sectopods and the Ethereals themselves to get to the Cathedral-Bridge of the Temple Ship.

Further aircraft from nations around the world had joined in the 11 hour battle – and the United states and China had both launched nuclear weapons directly at the Temple Ship knowing that they could not destroy it, but they could keep it distracted, it's crew panicked and give XCOM precious extra time to eliminate the Alien threat once and for all.

 _ _My name is Jane Shepard.__

 _ _Her name is Jane Shepard.__

 _ _You are the one who will save all from the Reapers.__

 _ _I AM MASTER SERGEANT JANE SHEPARD. XCOM OPERATIVE, MASTER LEVEL PSIONIC X-12031986__

 _ _She was the one who wiped out the Reapers.  
SHE WAS JANE SHEPARD. THE ONE WITH THE GIFT.__

 _ _I was born Wednesday March 12__ _ _th__ _ _1986__

 _ _Her creation was irrelevant and her humanity a co-incidence.__

 _ _My parents are Hannah and Martin Shepard.__

 _ _She would never see them again.__

Clutching at her temples Shepard screamed, and continued to scream until she could no longer breath. Taking in a sharp breath she realised she could still hear herself screaming, she could hear herself start to scream and she could hear herself stop screaming.

 _ _Great, Here I am Trapped in an alien space ship in an electric death cloud going BUG-FUCK-SHITTING-MAD!__

 _ _Who said you where going mad Jane?__

 _ _After all, we're all here for a reason.__

All concept of time passing evaporated as she realized exactly what, or rather whom the other presence was. Jane Shepard was talking to herself. Or maybe another version of herself, she couldn't tell – for split seconds she was surrounded by versions of herself from the future, some from the past, some male, some female. Some turned out to be psionic like herself, others Biotic, whatever the hell that meant. Out of the ghostly shadows some where covered in blood and viscera, others nearly dead. All of them where a variation on the same theme – Commander Shepard.

 _ _What the hell is going on?__

 _ _It's simple – we are going to save the Galaxy.__

 _ _What!?__

 _ _Yep, save the whole damn Galaxy – there is one problem though.__

 _ _Touch the Ethereal data-tap again.__

Shepard moved slowly towards the gently floating Ethereal orb atop it's pedestal. As she moved she could both see and feel her hands moving before they actually started doing so, or in some cases see them move away in slow motion after she had already done so. Jane swallowed what little moisture she could from her dry throat and connected with the device as an armada of visions filled her head, as she had connected with it the first two times.

Visions of sorrow, death and dread filled her mind, it had never been an invasion. What Humanity would eventually call the "First Ethereal War" was nothing more than a test that unfortunately mankind has passed with flying colors.

We had proven ourselves as hardy fighters – with physical strength and stamina and the ability to perform beyond our own limits whilst under duress.

We had proven out ingenuity and creativity – the Ethereals had deliberately allowed us to capture the live samples, the corpses, their technologies and weaponry to see what we would do. They had given us a mere sample of what they had available and we had made an armoury.

We had proven our ability with The Gift – when under stress in close proximity to Elerium, Human beings would naturally become psionic at levels of power and ability on par with the Ethereals themselves.

Lastly – we had proven our genetic malleability. The bastards where dying! They would be dead in less than 50 years! All we had to do was out-live them and instead we gave them the very tool-set they needed to survive.

Even with time overlapping in the confines of the Cathedral-Bridge Shepard could now sense the other seven temple ships, she could see the future that laid ahead for the human race, the death and despair that awaited unless the Ethereals could be destroyed.

Which was when the final images appeared – the great destroyers. The very reason why the Ethereals where so willing to sacrifice entire civilizations in the first place. The image blurred and slid from her mind but she could see their forms – dark blue metallic sheens, cephalopod designed machine nations . . . millions of them waiting in the void between galaxies.

Shepard screamed, she wept, she raged uselessly and then gave into the depression of it all – the future that laid ahead outside of the pocket reality the Temple Ship now existed within had to happen, the suffering beyond had to take place if anything was going to survive within the Milky way at all. Both inside and outside the transition of time as she used to know it she watched the Ethereal occupation, the ADVENT regime, the Second Ethereal war – and a galaxy of twinkling lights.

 _ _Jane Shepard went mad.__

 _ _Jane Shepard is mad.__

 _ _Jane Shepard iswaswillalwaysbe angry.__

 _ _But Jane Shepard always get's even.__

All the Shepard's together pushed her into renegade sanity, paragon madness. Without time as a constraint she existed for millennia in an attosecond, which was precisely when the door opened.

98,000 years ago the Ethereals had set out on their voyage, their quest – enduring the psychic death-throes of the entire Insunannon race.

48,000 years ago they encountered the Prothean race, shortly before they too where devoured by the cycle. During this time the Ethereals themselves had fought a series of bloody hit and run campaigns against the ancient machines, and stole the technologies the eldritch intelligence's used to create more of themselves for something that would eventually become known as the AVATAR project.

By the time that information had entered her mind it had all happened, was still happening and was going to happen. Billions of humans processed with factory like precision for what would be the Ethereals greatest failure.

 _ _No, push that shit from your head – you need to focus.__

 _ _WE NEED TO FOCUS__

 _ _I NEED TO FOCUS__

 _ _A world Humanity would not discover for another 157 years.__

 _ _Eden Prime.__

 _ _Wouldn't be attacked for another 162 years, 10 months, 14 days, 8 hours and 17 minutes.__

 _ _Also visited by the Ethereals – AFTER it had fallen.__

 _ _Active Prothean beacon.__

 _ _And Hyper-wave decoder.__

 _ _You won't remember this conversation? You won't remember any of this__

 _ _You know that right?__

 _ _Yesweknowthatnowshutup__

 _ _Just make sure you get the date right.__

The decks of the Temple ship warped and fused as the pocket reality Jane Shepard had forced it into collapsed inwards upon itself, Earth no longer needed to be saved because by the time she returned to reality it had saved itself with a price in blood 6 billion times over. Her sanity and madness had rolled into one over and over again – but she had _**volunteered**_ for this mission. Now, as the fields of Eden Prime faded into her view, she could hear the chattering of Geth drones, but her knowledge of what they where evaded her, she could see the clouds of smoke, but had no idea why the fields where burning. She could feel the heat even through her XCOM issue Psi-Armor and could hear the distant crack-whine sounds of pulse lasers, and in the sky . . .

. . . In the sky, obscured by clouds of acrid smoke and wreaths of blood red lightening was a shape that was impossibly tall, floating in the sky – a vast tentacled form of dark blue metal and foul intent that shook her to her very core, filling her with fear and dread.

The last thought that passed through her mind before she passed out, was the question as to why that thing floating in the sky would shake her to her very core.


	3. Pan-Human-Union - Codex Entry 1

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 **/-/ Codex /-/ Non-Cidatel Races /-/  
/-/ The Pan-Human-Union /-/ Historical Timeline 2015 – 2157 /-/**

 **– _ **Please be aware the following codex entry is lifted from Civilian information from the Pan-Human-Union Internet, disclosed information from the public XCOM "UFOPEDIA" Equivalent as well as additional information gathered from civilian and military sources. Some discrepancies or questionable sources may exist within this information. –**_**

 ** _ **/ 2015-2019 The First Ethereal War /**_**

 _ _"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally Terrifying"__

 ** **Human Author Arthur C. Clark "How Science will revolutionize the Twenty-First Century" (1999) (Quote Post-Humous)****

 _ _"Those who play with the Devil's toys, will be brought by degrees to wield his sword."__

 ** **Human Author Arthur Buckminster Fuller (date of quote unknown, multiple references exist)****

* * *

The only "Authenticated" first contact between Mankind and another alien coalition of non-Citadel species lead by the the antagonists of the war, "The Ethereal Ones"

 **/ (See also** **The Elders** **,** **AVATAR** **program** **,** **ADVENT** **occupation,** **Second Ethereal War** **) /**

Starting in the Human date and year March 15th 2015 the Ethereal race and their thralls began a worldwide campaign of abductions, kidnappings, terrorism and genocide that over the course of the next four years devastated the biosphere of almost all of the southern hemisphere of the Human Home-world otherwise known as Earth, Terra or Sol 3.

Over the course of this 4 year invasion the total Human population was culled from 8 billion to 5.8 billion through abductions, genetic harvesting operations or terror assaults on Human cities of the time.

The United Nations formed "XCOM" the eXtraterrestrial COMbat unit as a massive multinational assault force to defend the Human race, and despite massive losses over the course of this conflict - technological improvements and gathered alien intelligence lead to massive improvements in Human technologies and weaponry including but not limited to.

Effective handheld Pulse and later Beam Laser Weaponry for infantry use.

Jumps in material sciences and battlefield Armour configurations (see attached files for "Carapace", "Archangel" and "Titan" Armour suites alongside their derivative units)

Massive boosts in "conventional" (see attached files for Gunpowder based weaponry) weaponry, leading to the deployment of Magnetic Accelerated Cannon technologies, Railguns and Coilguns

Massive boosts in conventional aeronautic technology, leading to the development of the Human-Alien hybrid aircraft known as the Firestorm Interceptor.

Considerable advances in energy generation techniques – moving Humanity from Nuclear fission to Nuclear fusion, not including the Element Humanity knows as "Elerium"

Considerable advances in Genetic Engineering via the use of the now lost material known as "Meld" which would allow elements of physiology from completely different species to be grafted into Humanity and vice-versa. This technology has been lost since the end of the First Ethereal War.

Considerable advanced in cybernetic engineering and combat skeletons, resulting in the (M)echanised (E)xoskeletal (C)ybersuit and the eventual creation of MEC/SPARK combat AI chassis units. These advances also impacted on the creation of prosthesis for the replacement of lost limbs in the area of Medical treatments.

Numerous sub-advantages of the combined applications of these technologies in almost every area of Human development.

The single largest development would be considered the development of "Psionic" powers or capabilities in roughly 15-27% of the total Human population, attributed to exposure to the Element known as Elerium under stress (for instance, Alien terror operations which would normally follow the dropping of pods filled with aerosol distributed Elerium into said site) or combat.

 **– **NOTE –****

 **– **Despite the continued insistence of Humanity and their ambassadors over the existence of Psionic capabilities they have yet to be fully monitored or researched in controlled conditions by the Citadel Council. All evidence towards "Psionic" potential, "Psi" powers and abilities are to be considered questionable until proven otherwise –****

Over the course of the four year war Humanities armed forces and XCOM faced the aliens who assaulted their home world in a series of either assault or reactionary conflicts that lead to the intelligence gathering to defend the human race.

During this war, many sub-factions and military forces turned against XCOM or mankind as a whole, two major examples being the Government of India (known at the time as the IAST : Bhārata Sarakāra) which seceded under alien rule in exchange for an offered respite from alien attacks and the promise of technologies which would later be developed by XCOM regardless.

The Second Example was the Federal Government of Nigeria, which was in fact not a formal surrender of power but a forced mind-control of their leaders by the Ethereals within the first year of the war. Eventually the Nigerian police and armed forces stopped reporting alien attacks to their fellow nations and XCOM and towards the end of the war actively fought against XCOM aircraft and soldiers to hinder their operations.

The last major example of sub-factions which turned against Humanity during the First Ethereal War was the Pro-Human cabal known as "EXALT" which was first discovered to be operating on a multinational level in mid 2017. As it would appear EXALT had been nothing more than a pro-human cult that had hidden throughout the Human civilizations powerful and elite for over 2 centuries acting as nothing more than a cult is species related ego. With the arrival of the Ethereals EXALT changed their operating methods and mandate and began to actively hinder XCOM and Military efforts to drive back the Alien threat under the guise of claiming Alien technology for themselves. The result of this was an attempt by EXALT to end the war on their own terms using alien technology to put themselves at the head of a new world order by actively overthrowing the Human Governments of the time.

The threat EXALT posed against the war effort at the time was extinguished during the assault on the EXALT headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada – after a prolonged street battle and skyscraper assault involving both XCOM forces and the forces of the US military in September 2018.

At the beginning of 2019 AD the Alien forces began to ramp up their attacks against humanity tenfold. Terror strikes that would often occur monthly or bi-monthly would begin to happen on a weekly or even daily basis.

With the deployment of XCOM Firestorm interceptors Ethereal Battleships would often be seen in the skies of Earth, using Fusion or Blaster munitions to devastate cities or wipe entire townships off the face of the Earth and the Leaders of Mankind of the Era where actively beginning to consider surrender in full to the Ethereal race to prevent the very real chance of the Human race being rendered extinct by the year 2020.

However, with a combined strike force XCOM and standard military forces made a concentrated assault on the Alien base that had been discovered under the Antarctic ice shelf. The result of this battle lead to the death of the Sectoid Commander – a genetic derivative of the Sectoid species. The death of this creature threw the Aliens attacks into disarray, giving Xcom time enough for Dr Moira Vahlen to reverse engineer the Alien device known as the Hyperwave decoder – which was then utilized with the aid of Chief Engineer Raymond Shen. These events would eventually reveal the existence of the "Overseer" UFO and the "Ethereal" race who where behind the entire war.

Utilizing the Hyperwave decoder, flights of Raven and Firestorm Interceptors and multiple nations working in unison chased the Overseer craft other three continents and eventually shot it down in the Saharan Desert. The craft was assaulted and captured intact by XCOM Fire-team Indigo – lead by Infantry Master Sergeant Jane Shepard, whom would be discovered through her combat exposure to Elerium, combat exposure to the Ethereals and accidental but direct contact with the later named "Gollop" device (it was assumed that the Master Sergeant used the device to avoid suppression fire from a team of Muton Elites, and in doing so made skin contact with the device).

Reverse engineering of this vessel revealed the purpose of the Ethereal device, which combined with the Hyperwave decoder as well as the Psionic powers rapidly appearing among XCOM operatives and the general public led to the discovery of the assumed Ethereal base of operations. A "Temple ship" with the estimated mass of a small moon that had been cloaked within Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean for the last four years.

With the Ethereal Temple Ship revealed and their secrecy now broken the Ethereal Commanders ordered the final stages of their supposed Invasion of the Earth – further co-ordinated strikes against Human population centres, including but not limited to New York, London, Casablanca, Rio De Janeiro, Sapporo, Minsk, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Istanbul, Dhaka, Beijing.

In response to this new assault XCOM ordered a final, massive attack on the Ethereal Temple Ship known simply as "Operation Avenger".

Raven and Firestorm interceptors from every continent joined forces with air forces from every nation that could field them in the single largest aerial battle in human history over the Pacific Ocean. This battle was joined by every seaborne naval vessel the human race could muster, which included but where not limited too the following -

 **The United States Pacific Fleet**

 **British Pacific Fleet**

 **The Chinese Peoples Liberation Navy**

 **The French "Forces sous-marines"**

 **The Russian Navy**

 **The Japanese Self-Defense Force**

Over the course of the next 19 hours, the battle for the Temple Ship raged, and the human losses are estimated (from historical records) at little under 500,000 souls lost from the combined air and naval forces during the operation. Notable events include the United States Ohio Class Submarines "Wyoming", "Rhode Island" and "Nebraska" launching their entire stockpiles of Nuclear missiles against the Temple Ship both as direct assaults and as distractions alongside the Russian nuclear submarines "Aleksanddr Nevskiy" and "Vladimir Monomakh" as well as the British nuclear submarines "Vigilance" and "Vengeance" to prevent further losses of Human life during Operation Avenger.

At the end of Operation Avenger, the XCOM assault team is presumed to have reached the command and control centre of the Temple Ship or it's onboard reactors and destroyed them utterly.

The reason why the fate of Fire-team Indigo is presumed is because of the success behind Operation Avenger – the Temple Ship had slowly begun to destroy itself and the final signals from the vessel where those of Infantry Master Sergeant Jane Shepard, the only "Master" level Psionic of the human race.

The final recorded words where unfortunately garbled radio transmissions, and the following digitally reconstructed material was decoded long after the end of Operation Avenger.

– "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry – they're" –

The Temple Ship rose from the Earth's atmosphere and simply dissipated into a burst of psionic and explosive power. The surrounding Alien vessels of all classes simply started dropping from the skies and no more attacks where reported for a week.

The Official "End" of the First Ethereal War was declared by Humanity on July 1st 2019.

In less than a month, 7 more Temple Ships arrived – and the events of the ADVENT Occupation began.

* * *

 **/–/** _ **A Moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

Woah, the start of this fanfic has been a ride and I am genuinely surprised it has been accepted so well and so openly by the community.

OMAC001 – here is the first of your Codex entries, as you and other readers may have noticed I have made the events of the First Ethereal War closer to the events portrayed in the fantastic Long War mod, including the additional technologies and steps added by the mod.

The events of Xcom Enemy Within and Xcom 2 are now part of the SAME timeline, I've hinted thus-far and it will be explained far more thoroughly in the following Codex entries before I then begin the main storyline instead of building the world around it.

Yes – the events listed, the world being built around Firaxis and their brilliant reboot of the XCOM universe is far more _**_**APOCALYPTIC**_**_ in this retelling, and the reasons for it being like this will set the tone for when the main storyline begins. I hope this meets with peoples tastes.

Lastly – Need to go back and make a few small corrections to the previous two chapters to make sure the dates and times remain consistent for the "Official" records of human history – as in those we have left after _2 major wars that nearly wiped out our species and a 25 year occupation that wiped out our cultures, national identities and erased portions of our history never to be regained_. So you'll probably notice that a few dates will change in the previous two chapters to match this one.

In the mean time, I'll catch you all in the next Codex Entry – the ADVENT Occupation and Second Ethereal war from 2019 to 2041.


	4. Pan-Human-Union - Codex Entry 2

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 **/-/ Codex /-/ Non-Cidatel Races /-/  
/-/ The Pan-Human-Union /-/ Historical Timeline 2015 – 2157 /-/**

 ** **Please be aware the following codex entry is lifted from Civilian information from the Pan-Human-Union Internet, disclosed information from the public XCOM "UFOPEDIA" Equivalent as well as additional information gathered from civilian and military sources. Some discrepancies or questionable sources may exist within this information. –****

 ** **/ 2019-2035 The ADVENT Occupation /****

 _"From what little I've seen of their technology... If the aliens were intent on capturing Earth, there's not much we could do to stop them. I'm guessing they have something else in mind."_

 _ ** **Dr Raymond Shen Sr, XCOM Chief Engineering Officer, quoted 20****_ _ ** **th****_ _ ** **April 2015.****_

* * *

The Official "End" of the First Ethereal War was declared by Humanity on July 1st 2019. Plans where put forth and the considered "Open Secret" of the first Ethereal War and XCOM's efforts had been disclosed to the general populace of the planet Earth.

Celebrations began in earnest across the planet – despite the Nation states that existed at the time, almost every individual on the planet had known of friends and family who had been lost in the war, which had wiped the Human population from 8 Billion to 6.8 Billion over the course of the four year war.

Despite political and personal backlash from many individuals, politicians, governments and interested parties that Xcom could have some how done more to curb the aliens attack on the Human race, XCOM as an organisation and as individual operatives where hailed as heroes that had managed to defend Humanity from the The Ethereals and their plans for what could have happened if they had won the war.

July 19th 2019 deep space telescopes and XCOM sensor bases detected no less than an additional 7 Ethereal Temple Ships which appeared out of seemingly nowhere and descended into Earth Orbit and began the systematic orbital bombardment of nearly every major population center, military base and point of cultural or historical interest on the face of the Earth. Untold millions (possibly billions, the total kill count of this attack is unknown due to the sporadic nature of records that survived the ADVENT occupation) perished during these assaults while the Ethereals surrounded the planet Earth in a combined Visual, Audible and Psionic signal that overpowered every form of Radio, Analogue or Digital communications and demanded the Human Race hand over their national leaders at the remains of the United Nations building in New York.

48 hours later, July 21st 2019 the surviving members and leaders of the united nations met with the Ethereal leaders – which led to a combined treaty and interrogation of those Individuals who attended the meeting.

During this meeting the "Formal" surrender of the Human race was agreed upon, by January 1st 2020 the individual nations of mankind would cease to exist and Humanity would exist as one nation under the rule of the ADVENT Coalition, which itself would be ruled by the Ethereal race, whom henceforth would be referred to as "The Elders".

The conditions for this surrender dictated the surrender of all Human Army, Navy and Air forces and their folding into the ADVENT coalition armed forces and the total disclosure of the XCOM headquarters, all XCOM bases and installations, the identities of all XCOM staff, operatives and of their families.

By July 31st 2019 XCOM Headquarters had been assaulted by no less than 7 combined waves of Ethereal forces before it fell to the Alien attacks, the XCOM Commander captured for "War Crimes" against the Ethereal race. The battle of XCOM Headquarters though did not end cleanly – XCOM personnel managed to hold out within the base for another three days without their commander until it is presumed the last of the XCOM Operatives where killed with the detonation of a (historically reported) 50 Megaton Nuclear Device that had been installed beneath the facility that rested close to the border between the United States of America and Canada, somewhere in the state of Montana – less than 750 miles from the Yellowstone Caldera within the Yellowstone National Park.

The Nuclear device had been a designated fail-safe to ensure the destruction of the entire facility unless it fell into enemy hands, what neither the Ethereals or XCOM considered was the vast stores of Elerium that XCOM had captured during the events of the first war and had stored within the installation.

The resulting Nuclear blast also caused the Elerium within the facility to enter a "hyper-explosive" state and the resulting blast was felt Globally, through the resulting earthquakes and tectonic forces – which in turn created the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera.

The initial explosion from Yellowstone by itself would be an extinction level event that played directly into the Ethereals hands.

The blast directly exposed the Earth's mantle from Island Park to Wapiti, an area with a circumference of 140 miles (approximate) and when combined with the Elerium Enhanced Nuclear blast spat forth thousands upon thousands of eruptions which spewed Magma which had been combined with Nuclear fallout and Particularized Elerium into low orbit.

Clouds of Ash combined with Nuclear fallout and Particularized Elerium spread across the entirety of the United States of America, killing millions and rendering livestock and farmed foods completely inedible. This poisonous nuclear ash dispersed across the entire northern hemisphere of the planet earth.

The Ethereals however already had plans for the human race due to their original invasion being a test of the human race for the following traits.

Humanity had proven it's ability to fight back against insurmountable odds.

Humanity had proven to have the gift.

Humanity was genetically mutable.

That mutability could be combined with our creativity and ingenuity to allow the dying Ethereal race to ascend to new forms, as they had filed to do so at some point during their history. So with aliens walking the streets of the Earth in plain site – the ADVENT coalition planted it's flagstones in the poisoned Earth and began the construction of the new cities ADVENT would use to fulfil their masters horrifying plans.

From the 1st of January 2020 ADVENT began a massive conscription drive from the police and armed forces of mankind, slowly replacing the purely Human forces with the Human-Hybrid forces generally known as "ADVENT troopers" which propaganda painted as willing volunteers for "genetic upgrades" that would help protect the human race and promote human safety.

The ADVENT troopers where in fact wholly artificial beings, the forced conscription of the Human armed forces served two roles – to remove any threat they may pose to the growing ADVENT coalition and to serve as a baseline genetic template for the beginnings of the AVATAR program. Those who did not escape the forced conscription where abducted or kidnapped or killed with factory like precision and melted down into raw genetic material with the Human imprints the aliens needed to begin their plans. Untold millions where abducted or killed from what remained of the armies of man, and those who rebelled where hunted down in turn by wave after wave of ADVENT troopers, MEC combat platforms or Sectopods in a terrifying display of Ethereal efficiency.

As more ADVENT troopers and aliens appeared among the Human populace the Aliens began the construction of new cities over the ruins of old – these new cities where almost entirely automated and required little to no direct input, and although humans could find work and tasks within these cities, the offer of employment within them was not actually required. The new cities where nothing more than enormous cages to herd sentient, Human cattle and raise a new generation with no history, culture or idea of the pain that had come before – their Ethereal masters now called themselves the "Elders" and withdrew from public site, but where hailed as giving humanity the new Gene Therapy clinics to heal and remove the majority of Human diseases, but they also acted as a sampling tool to gather genetic imprints for the "Materials" required for their AVATAR project.

"Materials" being a crude description of living Human livestock.

Outside the cities, human development was allowed to continue under strict control – humanity was no longer allowed to keep livestock or butcher animals of their own, nor where they allowed to keep crops.

The Yellowstone detonations where the original cause for these laws, but in time it simply became easier for the Elders and ADVENT to outlaw them to prevent human independence from their control, and the ease of arresting, interrogating and then abducting citizens who broke these laws made it easier to abduct more and more people by the day.

During the next five years the Elders would dispense care and cruelty on humanity in equal measure.

The Elders put captured copies of the original XCOM base AI that had been upgraded with limited sentience known as JULIAN towards the creation of more and more advanced MEC combat platforms – eventually JULIAN would himself rebel against ADVENT, sealing his facility and killing all those inside, he in turn trapped himself within his production towers. Within these walls he had nearly unlimited power, but outside those walls he was surrounded by Alien battleships and waves of ADVENT troopers. So JULIAN faked his own shutdown and ADVENT abandoned the facility until 2036 when he would reactivate, quite insane and ready to operate with his own plans.

Dr Moira Vahlen, who had been presumed missing since the destruction of XCOM headquarters would work with XCOM remnants and resistance cells both actively and passively from several installations. One was a series of volcanic islands in the south pacific which she would eventually self-destruct to prevent her research from falling into enemy hands, and another was an underground facility in the depths of the Białowieża Forest Germany where she would happen upon three genetic samples of the races under Ethereal control and begin non-sanctioned and near insane experiments upon them. These experiments would eventually prove helpful in the post Second Ethereal War research of Psionic capabilities and the stabilization of the Skirmisher (former ADVENT troopers without Ethereal Control) faction but also unleash three exponentially more powerful creatures onto mankind that where not shackled to the Ethereals will. Although all three would eventually be slain during the Second Ethereal War it has remained unknown how many humans, ADVENT and fellow aliens they butchered through their tortured existences.

 **– **Please be aware the following codex entry is regrettably fragmented due to the sparse nature of records from the period. We apologize for the possible inconsistencies this may create -****

During the years running up to 2035 and the Second Ethereal War several resistance, rebel and XCOM units worked in secret to gather the needed materials, technologies and manpower to re-establish a war footing against the Ethereals.

XCOM primary cells (may or may not have) operated from a loose network of nuclear or diesel submarines around the worlds oceans, acting a triple purpose of a "Pony Express" to move personnel across continents from one submarine to another as ADVENT struggled to track these stealth underwater vehicles.

The Human resistance faction known as "The Reapers" Under the leader known as "Volk Volikolov" would operate in the majority of the ruined cities of the United States, fighting against "The Lost". The Lost where humans who had been transmuted into horrifying "Zombie like" (-sic In human history, they had often written about "Zombies" of various types which where human dead that had reanimated/?/ and desired to feast on human flesh, similar to the Asari legends of Ardat-Yashi) creatures as a result of the Elerium Aerosol dispersal pods dropped on the cities of Earth during the first invasion. Due to their disconnected nature of Reaper Cells – they would not be able to mount an effective resistance against ADVENT until their involvement in "Operation Gatecrasher" which was the first true mission, and the start of the Second Ethereal War.

The Human resistance faction known as "The Templars" which where a combined force of human psychics under their priest-leader named "Giest" (the real name of this figure was never revealed pre-during-or post Second Ethereal War) and thier primary field of operations was centered in Mongolia, but extended as far as Kazakhstan and northern China. The Templars combat effectiveness was limited due to their low numbers and limited global impact. They would however be the first faction to learn of the three Half-Human Half-Ethereal special forces creatures known as "The Chosen"

The last faction was in fact, ADVENT troopers that had been somehow disconnected from the psionic control of their masters and, without a history or culture they settled on vengeance under the command of the first "Freed ADVENT" Betos T'voan. Their involvement in the ADVENT occupation and Second Ethereal War was considerable – fueled by a combination of revenge against their masters and guilt for the crimes they had committed unwillingly against the Human race. These events combined created the first vestiges of Skirmisher culture, a pledge to act on humanities behalf and shed their blood before any pure human should have too, one that remains throughout their often bloody history.

During this time, the resistance cells working against the Ethereals became more and more organised, but still lacked a central bond that would allow them to become truly effective against the Ethereals – Despite this the Elders would move to create the three Half-Human-Ethereal creatures known as "The Chosen" to hunt down and annihilate any human resistance they found in their paths. These creatures would continue their actions until the first of the Chosen was killed in 2037, and the last of the trio killed in 2041.

With many actions moving both forward and backwards XCOM would eventually re-unify at the site of one of the first crashed but never recovered Alien transport UFO's downed early in the war, and begin a massive reconstruction of the vessel from an Alien transport vessel to the later re-christened XCOM "Avenger" mobile headquarters.

During this time, Dr Richard Tygan would "see the truth" of the ADVENT administration through a set of events he would never disclose but did admit it cause him a great deal of personal grief – and as a result he would organize his own smuggling out of the ADVENT controlled city of Washington before hastily tearing his own ADVENT chip (a requirement for living within their cities) without surgical tools or even anesthetic in front of the XCOM extraction team that completed his smuggling, risking brain and spinal damage if it failed – thankfully he successfully removed the chip without killing or paralyzing himself and joined XCOM as their new chief Scientist in the Absence of Dr Moira Vahlen.

Xcom was now on the cusp of it's Resurrection.

Regrettably however, months before the activation of the Avenger in 2035, a secret hold that XCOM had no access to was opened by an accidentally triggered self-defense system, which included many floaters and sectoids in deep cryostasis which then rampaged through the ship, attempting to either activate a tracker beacon for it's destruction or enable the self destruct sequence themselves. Both efforts where thwarted by XCOM forces but not without significant losses, including the psionic assault against Dr Raymond Shen. On his death bed he would instruct his engineering teams in the final activation of the Avenger and pass the role of Chief Engineer to his Daughter Lily Shen.

Despite his massive contributions to the safety of mankind, living through the temporary destruction of XCOM and it's later Resurrection. Dr Raymond Shen passed away 17th November 2034 aged 80, survived above by his Daughter Lily Shen – it is often lamented that despite the footprint he left on the course of human history, he never lived to see the beginning or end of the Second Ethereal War or Mankinds eventual freedom.

Of the final Events of the ADVENT occupation, Betos and Pratal Mox of the Skirmishers would accidentally come into intelligence that would change the future of the war. During the original assault on XCOM headquarters the Aliens actively sought to, and succeeded in capturing the Commander of XCOM alive, and had in fact connected him to the Alien Psionic network to run trillions of combat simulations to enhance the effectiveness of their ADVENT troopers.

Over the next few days, a plan was put forward including but not limited to the involvement of the Reaper Faction, the Skirmisher Faction and XCOM forces to both assault ADVENT gene therapy clinics in no less than 25 different cities worldwide, destroy a monument to the Elders on live, public television, kill the (suspected alien) Elder spokesman called "the Speaker" and rescue the Commander.

12 of the Gene Therapy operations failed, but distracted ADVENT forces enough to allow the Reaper Operative Elena "Outrider" Dragunova to confirm the location of the Commander and remove him from the network while keeping him in stasis for XCOM to rescue him.

As the Elder Monument went up in flames, Operation Gatecrasher and John "Central" Bradford succeeded in rescuing the commander unharmed, but the operation failed to kill "The Speaker" but the event had massively shaken Human confidence in the ADVENT and alien forces inside their cities, reduced the effectiveness of ADVENT troopers via the Psionic network without the Commanders tactical input to guide them and showed without a doubt that not only XCOM had returned.

XCOM was organised, prepared and ready to fight – and as the Elders began to see the scope of the attacks against them rise it had become clear.

The Second Ethereal War had begun.


	5. Pan-Human-Union - Codex Entry 3

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 **/-/ Codex / Non-Cidatel Races /-/  
/-/ The Pan-Human-Union /-/ Historical Timeline 2015 – 2157 /-/**

– **Please be aware the following codex entry is lifted from Civilian information from the Pan-Human-Union Internet, disclosed information from the public XCOM "UFOPEDIA" Equivalent as well as additional information gathered from civilian and military sources. Some discrepancies or questionable sources may exist within this information. –**

 **/-/ 2035-2041 The Second Ethereal War /-/**

" _You have been Judged, and I am your punishment."_

 **The Chosen "Warlock" Quoted June 17th 2035**

* * *

Following the events of Operation Gatecrasher, XCOM made use of their recently activated mobile headquarters known as "The Avenger" (note – possible reference by name to the "Operation Avenger" that ended the First Ethereal War") to launch a fast moving series of hit-and-run attacks across the northern hemisphere of the planet Earth.

During this time, the recently Recruited XCOM chief Scientist Dr Richard Tygan would remove the ADVENT psionic connection chip from the rescued XCOM commander (whom had been kept in stasis for the last 16 years) and with the leadership of the XCOM commander, these hit and run attacks proved massively effective in the training of the fledgling XCOM resistance as well as degrading confidence in ADVENT.

From technology reverse-engineered form the commanders Psionic chip, Dr Richard Tygan assembled to technology behind the "Skulljack" Psionic/Holographic interface. This device would act as a "Go-between" to connect to the ADVENT psionic network and the XCOM computer systems to tap ADVENT intelligence and get the upper hand against their adversaries.

These actions in turn activated the Alien "CODEX" which had been hidden within their psionic network, a half-psionic half-digital being which had been created in case of a situation which resulted in the Ethereals combined command and control and data containment system being compromised.

Although XCOM succeeded in destroying the CODEX creature, the Elders would then flood their theaters of operation with such creatures alongside genetically altered or upgraded versions of the aliens seen in the original war.

The Ethereals also authorized the use of their three personal Half-Human Half-Ethereal special forces soldiers known simply as "The Chosen" to move from their previous operations of hindering and hunting down their designated resistance factions and into a new set of operations – a combined effort between the three to draw XCOM into open combat, kidnap XCOM soldiers for interrogation or simply wipe out Faction, Resistance or XCOM friendly settlements down to every Man, Woman and Child.

The goal of their operations was to eventually re-capture the XCOM Commander and re-link him to the ADVENT psionic network. While he had been unconsciously aware of the network during the last 15 years in stasis his mind had been plumbed for the depths of it's strategic and tactical knowledge and despite his status as an non-altered baseline human the Ethereals considered him their only genuine threat, and a critical piece of their various programs around, and reason for the AVATAR project.

The Ethereal race was on the run from another race more powerful and destructive than themselves, and had spent thousands of years searching for a means to defeat this threat. During this search they had encountered the races they eventually offered into, kidnapped or outright created as part of their coalition.

They had wandered throughout the stars as Frankenstein locusts, creating genetic horrors, living weapons, cloned soldiers and eldritch horrors to defeat their enemy until their worst enemy of all eventually caught up with them – Entropy.

Through the access allowed through the CODEX and the intelligence gathered through XCOM friendly insurgents – XCOM had learned of the Primary ADVENT "Blacksite" facility, and launched a massive assault upon it.

During this battle XCOM would encounter the Chosen Warlock, a powerful psionic creature of nearly unmatched power and tenacity – a mere step below the Elders themselves whom he considered his " _Mothers, Fathers and Masters_ "

Despite losses on XCOM's Behalf they managed to kill the Warlock for the first of many times (sic – It seems to be openly accepted knowledge despite the impossibility of such events occurring among the Pan-Human-Union that the Chosen where the closest to "Immortality" that any single being could achieve, with their biological and neurological states tied to a series of Psionic monoliths that would resurrect them instantly upon death, with the complete memories of everything they did and encountered up until the point of death) and capture the "Blacksite sample" the purpose of which would be discovered months later.

During this interim point, XCOM continued their hit-and-run raids across the globe whilst building their "Resistance network" of settlements, outposts and off-the-grid bases to further establish their goals. At the same time XCOM rediscovered pre-war technologies and artifacts which allowed the re-deployment of handheld Laser weaponry and the (re)creation of MEC prosthesis alongside the MEC combat chassis – which allowed troops too wounded or whom had lost entire limbs to regain their mobility, their dexterity and eventually their combat abilities.

At some point during late 2035 Dr Richard Tygan eventually "cracked" the Blacksite sample, the information and the materials it contained.

The sample was on of hundreds, but every single vial contained the factory processed genetic templates of millions of human beings, whom had either been arrested, kidnapped or "volunteered" by the ADVENT coalition and melted down with factory precision into a raw genetic paste which the Ethereals could use to insert the gene-codes of any other life form of their choosing. An impossibly god-like technology that XCOM would later discover was stolen from the "Greater Threat" the Ethereals where hell-bent on preparing for.

The second half of the information was the routing codes for every _other_ blacksite on the planet and their destination – a facility known simply as the "ADVENT forge".

Xcom began in earnest to arm and train the thousands of separate resistance cells with Laser or Magnetic weaponry and easy to reproduce body armour for the planned co-ordinated strikes against these bases.

 **–** ** **Please be aware the following codex entry is regrettably fragmented due to the sparse nature of records from the period. We apologize for the possible inconsistencies this may create –****

During these preparations, in early 2037 XCOM's primary and secondary data-cache nodes where hacked by (it was alleged at the time) the late Dr Raymond Shen – who reached out to Lily Shen directly, offering a set of co-ordinates far off the ADVENT grid and a chance to "Catch up on lost time".

The Skyranger team which included Lily Shen herself alongside John "Central" Bradford and a team of elite XCOM operatives moved to explore the site known locally as the "Lost Towers" in the region of Siberia, Russia.

After a series of mega-maniacal taunting and assaults by what appeared to be early prototypes for the ADVENT MEC automated combat chassis it was revealed whom was the perpetrator of the hacking events, and the reasoning behind them.

During the early phases of the First Ethereal War, Dr Raymond Shen had been working with several prototypes of the XCOM base AI to create a more competent research and development partner in the hopes that combining human technology, alien technology and AI precision with the sheer computational power of what Dr Shen Sr would refer to as a "First Generation smart AI" could help turn the tide but the project (Code-named "JULIAN") was shelved in favor of more pressing needs for enhanced battlefield armors and weaponry.

During the Assault on the XCOM headquarters in 2019 JULIAN's AI core was one of the many objects the aliens plundered and when they learned it's purpose – connected directly to the aliens Psionic network.

The Elders themselves would be responsible for the psionic and digital "Raping" of the AI known as JULIAN, with his only limited sentience at the time the AI mind was ripped apart and reconstructed time and time again to become something more capable of the Elders bidding and put to work in the creation and advancement of ADVENT MEC and Turret prototypes at the time and based within the Siberian-Sentience-Intelligence-Institute (Known pre-war as "Double S.I") under their gaze.

JULIAN eventually found the files kept within former XCOM bases and the Late Dr Shen's own work for what would be a considerably more advanced combat chassis that would be capable of carrying it's own AI core instead of needing to be connected to the Alien Psionic network.

In a matter of Attoseconds JULIAN sealed all information in and out of Double S.I as well as all physical entrances and exits and purged the poisonous run-off chemicals from MEC production stored beneath the facility into a potent poisonous gas and killed every organic life form within the facility.

At the same time however, ADVENT managed to send a system alert that the facility had fallen and Alien battleships where launched alongside wave after wave of ADVENT troops.

Realizing that he could not win the coming fight, JULIAN had forced himself into a temporary shutdown while the automated facilities defended the "Lost Towers" and put the factory processes to working on the designs left behind by Dr Shen Sr.

The ruse worked perfectly – ADVENT and the Elders came to the conclusion the facility was a lost cause as they already had the means to mass produce and deploy their needed MEC and Turret platforms and JULIAN had self-destructed instead of facing their wrath. The ADVENT/Alien fleet withdrew, not seeing reason to waste valuable resources on taking the facility.

During the XCOM assault of the Lost Towers Lily Shen would discover JULIANS true nature, and the SPARK prototype – and the flaw in JULIAN's plan. The SPARK had never been designed to carry his AI core, but had been designed as a combat AI protector from father to daughter, to follow Lily's every command, give her a final goodbye and in turn the design schematics to produce more SPARK's for herself with his health failing during his years at XCOM.

Enraged by this JULIAN flooded the facility once again with the poisonous gas clouds, which the SPARK managed to purge in turn with it's own systems. As the XCOM team fled for the facilities roof for extraction JULIAN chased with every MEC prototype at his disposal as well as a prototype Sectopod with a mangled version of his own AI core installed.

After a prolonged battle upon the rooftop, JULIAN was destroyed by the very SPARK unit he had hoped to inhabit – and as the Spark and "Central" Bradford where about to destroy the unit's core once and for all, Lily realized that the bastardized AI could actually be put to good use for the resistance.

By gutting the AI's instincts to destroy all life and installing an edited version of Isaac Asimov's (a renowned Human Author) into his base code which in turn was separated from his cognitive code and set to a "Read only" state the AI could never again learn or develop beyond the memory and capacity limited core his mind had been seated in – in effect his mind could work as an active process but he could never deviate from his cognitive pattern array.

Re-installing JULIAN in a semi separated server inside the Avenger Lily Shen had managed to reactivate JULIAN and the armies of MEC's he controlled within the Lost Tower into a standby state and began moving them in the hundreds to known Rebel factions as a final defense measure should human settlements outside ADVENT control came under attack. During the final stages of the war in 2041 this fail safe would eventually be used to assault the failing ADVENT regime and would become pivotal in reclaiming the planet Earth from Alien hands (despite JULIANS resignation and anger at being "Lobotomized" like this, he would eventually and sarcastically proclaimed how much he himself enjoyed destroying ADVENT and their Alien allies alongside XCOM, even if he should have "wiped out humanity from the get-go").

As for Lily Shen, She and John "Central" Bradford – despite meeting and working together for many years prior, began an awkward on-and-off relationship starting in 2037 and ending in the same year, before again having another relationship in 2039 through to 2040 which came to another end.

The reasoning behind this being the revelations of the war and John's own insecurities (himself seeing far too much death at his age – which was 59 in comparison to Lilys 31). Despite their moving closer and further apart, their relationship would eventually form into a marriage, on Tuesday 21st august 2041 – the day after the final day of the war, explained below.

Further events in 2037 lead to the discovered whereabouts of Dr Moira Vahlen and elements of her eventual fate.

Presumed missing or dead since the loss of XCOM headquarters she had worked for a time with the Dr Shen Sr. either aboard the Elpis (one of many XCOM submarines used during the ADVENT occupation) or a series of hastily constructed and then abandoned research outposts around the globe.

At some point in her travels she managed to contact and joined forces with the renowned XCOM Skyranger pilot "Big Sky" and settled for some time in an abandoned Alien genetic research facility in the Białowieża, Forest Germany.

During her occupation of the Białowieża facility she would happen upon three "Alien Ruler" samples kept in heavy cryostasis and begin research upon them. In a questionable turn of events Dr Vahlen would begin her research upon them with varying levels of insight, creativity and varying results – leading to the escape of all three test subjects into the surrounding forests and cities.

Outside of alien control the trio would assault human, XCOM, ADVENT and alien forces alike – raiding settlements and killing everything they could find, including rare battles where one of the Alien Rulers would enter open combat with one of the Chosen ( _See attached video file, "_ ** _VIPER KING -vs- Chosen Hunter – Battle of the lulz_** _"_ from human internet website "Youtube" /-/ current views 27,982,293,187).

By the end of 2037 XCOM has succeeded in tracking down and killing all three Alien Rulers – by reverse engineering Dr. Valen's own attempts at genetic alteration XCOM would eventually find a cure for the Skirmishers own deteriorating Genetic Code (See Post Second Ethereal War Codex Entry "Birth of the Pan-Human-Union").

By 2038, after considerable time spent tracking down their foe; the Chosen Hunter – Volk Volikolov" approached XCOM with the chance to kill their single most hated Alien enemy in the field and then track a form of "Psionic Pulse" that happened upon their death to it's origin point and attempt to kill the Chosen Hunter for good.

After 5 months of cross-hunting operations wherein the Reapers and XCOM would hunt the Hunter and the Hunter would in turn hunt them (much to his profound enjoyment and satisfaction) the Hunter was killed in the field and the origin point triangulated from three positions and the hunters base of operations discovered.

During another series of hit-and-run raids XCOM distracted ADVENT enough to launch an attack directly on the facility that was half-underground and find a teleportation array (sic – despite humanities insistence to the contrary, teleportation technology does -not- exist) to the Hunters inner-sanctum and the discovery of the Psionic monolith capable of his resurrection, and after a short but bloody battle, managed to both kill the Hunter again, destroy the monolith and kill the Hunter once and for all.

 _"You've seen it too Commander, have you told them? No.. they would be screaming if you did"_

 **The Chosen Hunter, (Quote, Final Words of) 20th February 2038.**

The meaning behind final words of the hunter would remain a mystery to both the Commander himself (due to supposedly repressed memories), XCOM as a whole (due to the sporadic nature of intelligence behind the AVATAR program) and Humanity in general until much later (See Post Second Ethereal War Codex Entry "Birth of the Pan-Human-Union" "Threat greater than the Ethereals", "Mars Prothean Data-Vault" and "Reaper Threat (supposed)").

Following the Death of the Hunter, the Templar faction would come forth and provide similar information in regards to the Chosen Warlock, whom had been a genetically altered human Psionic that formerly was a member of the Templars (much in the same way the Hunter was a supposed former member of the Reaper faction) but the Warlock caught onto their plans early and an alternate method of killing the Warlock had to be put forth.

Using Templars as bait, XCOM forces drew the Warlock into a trap set within the Dhala Crater, India and allowed him to believe he had happened upon an unprotected sub-sect of the Templar faction, a group of unprepared human Psychics ready to be reaped by himself and therefore his Elder masters.

What awaited him was no less than 500 combat ready Templars, a force of XCOM Psionics whom sealed the crater with a psychic force-field from which (as quoted) "Not even a hundred nukes could pierce" and then proceeded to remove the air from the 11km crater, suffocating the Warlock in a vacuum – and then using the Templar and XCOM psychics in force to track the Psionic pulse to a region just north of what used to be the nation of Bhutan.

Knowing the Warlock would not allow himself to be killed in the same manner as the Hunter, XCOM instead opted on a different means of killing the hunter.

XCOM forces indeed stormed the subsurface ADVENT base, and made use of the teleportation array, but instead of troops XCOM sent through a force of SPARK units (being non-organic the Warlock was somehow incapable of perceiving them beyond audible and visual range) with a fail-safe 10 kiloton Elerium Enhanced Nuclear Warhead (the first nuclear warhead produced since the beginning of the ADVENT coalition and the first to be Elerium Enhanced following the Yellowstone event of 2019) and upon "killing" the Warlock the SPARK team detonated the device before the being could resurrect – obliterating the Monolith and the entire facility.

Although the mission was deemed a success and the Warlock never appeared again (presumed dead) no detonation was detected in the region of space surrounding, on the surface of or subsurface of the Earth, which after the killing of the Hunter raised further questions, the Psionic pulse went through the ADVENT facilities and teleportation arrays to somewhere -else- where these battles took place. The answer to these questions again was never discovered.

As of 2039 and with the Warlock dead the Chosen Assassin stood back from her efforts against mankind and returned to her Masters side – the later to be discovered Elder Temple deep in the Mariana Trench.

During this time of (perceived) respite XCOM moved onto the ADVENT Forge facility and managed to shut down the primary production centre for further ADVENT troopers and re-enforcements. During this time XCOM managed to escape with another semi-humanoid life-form in the early stages of production that was sealed within a stasis suit and tube much like the ones the XCOM Commander had been kept alive in. The life-form within this suit was still maturing but after limited biopsy provided by Dr. Tygan it was a close clone of the XCOM commander who had genetic markers from millions of other humans and aliens, what would later be proven as the early growth stage of an AVATAR bastardized from both the Elders powers and the Commanders body and mind.

Further intelligence gathered from the forge led in turn to the "Skulljacking" of an ADVENT Codex being, and from the autopsy of the remains and the date held within, XCOM finally pieced together the horrifying puzzle that had surrounded the last 24 years.

The Elders where dying, their quest of endless Psionic self-improvement had led to both their immortality and the entropy that now plagued them, instead of living as normal beings would they where now having to use their near limitless supplies of psionic potential to keep their very blood flowing through their veins, and instead of being able to enforce their will upon reality as they thought they should have been able too, they where now imprisoned in sarcophagi in an undisclosed location. Unable even to move as the distraction provided by their very sense would lead to their concentration lapsing and their very deaths the Elders now utilised their Psionic Network to move others to do their bidding while they processed humanity in it's entirety to produce new AVATAR bodies for their minds to inhabit – in effect their very survival as a species and against the greater threat they feared for well over 100,000 years depended on driving the human race extinct.

All the pieces where falling into place, all XCOM needed was a means to finally assault the Elders directly – the slightest of changes to their sarcophagi or distractions around them could kill the beings within and shred the Psionic network to pieces.

Despite all the advantages, all the reclaimed technologies and new discoveries XCOM had no means of actually completing it's mission – until a figure (who's identity remained unknown through both wars and still is to this day reached out to XCOM during the year 2041).

The Council Spokesman, one of the original Founding members of XCOM – and founding members of ADVENT (but thankfully not at the formation of ADVENT in the ruined united nations building in 2019) had spent decades operating by proxy to supply different rebel groups with varying levels of intelligence in the hopes that someone would finally figure out what ADVENT was doing and why.

The spokesman managed to contact XCOM directly on an open transmission which ADVENT used to track his location. Before the Spokesman was tracked down and killed (taking no less than 7 ADVENT troopers to their deaths before he seemingly dies off camera) he managed to supply plans to access the ADVENT psionic network directly from it's Earth bound hub in Seattle and upload a virus to disconnect ADVENT forces from the Elders control. He also supplied co-ordinates to the Elder "Gateway" on Earth in Taiwan which could be used to gain access to the Elder Temple and the most chilling information of all, the designated time-frame for the processing of all "non-essential human personnel" into the AVATAR project – which was an event mere weeks away, disguised as an upcoming new gene therapy treatment which would process humans on-site.

Disgusted by this information and the loss of an unknown ally, John "Central" Bradford, Lily Shen, Richard Tygan and the XCOM commander put together a dual strike against the ADVENT network tower and the Elders directly – much along the lines of the original plan presented by the spokesman.

Two teams would strike simultaneously. One team at the network tower, but instead of using the virus to disrupt ADVENT, it would be a live, unedited broadcast of every single piece of evidence XCOM had ever found or produced from the Elders and the AVATAR project. It would also leave a backdoor for a secondary event following the actions of the second team.

The second team would strike at the psionic gate site in Tiawan, capture it and begin a full invasion of the Elder Temple.

The first plan went off without a hitch, and with the civilian uprisings in ADVENT controlled cities around the world – Lily Shen activated JULIANS code left in the MEC's she had deposited in every major settlement XCOM had been able to do so – and so the human revolutionaries where armed with and by resistance members and entire armies of human-friendly MEC units which proved invaluable to the form of total war ADVENT had at it's disposal.

The second plan, was a grinding failure from the very beginning. The gate was protected by hundreds of chrysalids and Codex units lying in wait as well as the little seen "Gatekeeper" species, which was specifically created from the genetic run-off of psi-capable processed humans. While the gate was captured – it annihilated any matter that came into contact with it unless it was preceded by a living example of the Elders genetic tampering.

XCOM needed a willing, living AVATAR on their side.

Thankfully as history had shown, they already had one – but they needed a means of finishing off the ADVENT forge example AVATAR and a consciousness to pilot it. Reluctantly the XCOM commander agreed to do so, this would be the last active decision the commander would make on XCOM's behalf as he would not survive what would be later known as "Operation Leviathan".

The XCOM commander opted to have his ADVENT chip re-inserted in an operation that despite Dr. Tygans best efforts would render the commander paralyzed across most of hit body from the mid-chest (human diaphragm) down and lead to the commander requiring a life support machine to continue breathing alongside his autonomic functions but allowed the Commander to use the XCOM AI systems and "Shadow Chamber" systems as a psychic bridge to allow him to control the AVATAR body that had been rendered into a semi-stable state through it's combination with the contents of the Blacksite Vial.

Using himself (via the AVATAR body) as the key the Commander opened the Gateway and allowed XCOM troops direct access to the Elder Temple.

Of the 78 XCOM soldiers who passed through the gate, only 6 returned alive, 1 in a catatonic state from which she would never recover and the others with various wounds, up-to and including full body plasma burns.

It is reported the Chosen Assassin had her monolith moved to the central chamber of the Temple base so she could regenerate directly alongside the Elders and protect them from harm, she was "killed" no less than 5 times during Operation Leviathan before her monolith was destroyed by a co-ordinated Shredstorm cannon attack from 6 different directions.

Whilst these events took place the Elders used their few on site forces, AVATARS whom had finished completion and their own psionic powers (committing suicide in the process) to halt the Commander and his forces in their progress.

For every Ethereal killed, the ADVENT network continued to shatter and the human rebellion surged forwards until the final "4" Elders formed their combined might and assaulted the commander directly.

While the Commanders Avatar held fast, returned the assault and even killed the last 4 Ethereals, his body on Earth was entering a state of convulsions (see attached human medical conditions "Epilepsy" ) and entered a SUDEP (see attached human medical files - "Sudden Death in Epilepsy") which required the near constant attention of Dr. Tygan to stop the commanders body from tearing itself apart.

The final actions of the Commanders AVATAR was to kill the final Ethereals, and then open the Gate for the XCOM operatives to escape as the psionic energies unleashed within the temple started to tear the facility apart and unleash a Psionic tear that would eventually rip the entire planet in half.

Withdrawing his hand from the gate killed the Commander on the Avenger, and with little life left in his AVATAR body the general consensus is that much like Infantry Master Sergeant Jane Shepard of the First Ethereal War he gave his life to save planet Earth and Mankind along side it.

With the Ethereals dead and the psionic network no longer in existence many alien species simply died on the spot, dropping like puppets which had their strings cut. Others simply stopped breathing, or starved to death or died of dehydration as they had no idea how to sustain themselves. The Majority of the ADVENT occupation forces where left as blank slates, with no memories, identities or culture – an issue which would become a central point of their identity as a species in the years to come.

In the short term however, unlike Infantry Master Sergeant Jane Shepard the Commander had insisted upon a closed-casket funeral and cremation to follow the day afterwards at an undisclosed location on Tuesday 21st August 2041.

The funeral was immediately followed by the Marriage of John "Central" Bradford and Lily Shen.

" _We've been running out of time for a while now, everyone's gone beyond being a bit thin, we've all seen so much loss and pain, but this time it is over for good. We've all lost a good friend and a paragon of humanity this day. Here's to hope, and to the love – that we should hold together and never allow this to happen again."  
_

 **John "Central" Bradford, quoted Tuesday 21st august 2041 shortly before his marriage to Lily Shen.**

The end of the Second Ethereal War was not announced, but generally accepted to be on the same day as no further Ethereal or Alien attacks have happened (historically) since.

* * *

 _ **/-/ A Moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

Would you guys believe this has been the hardest of the 3 (total) Codex entries so far?

Tying the ending of XCOM Enemy Within into something that can work with XCOM 2 without it being a retcon was a big enough jump to start with, but then using that as a stepping stone for the ADVENT occupation and the Second Ethereal War and all the events that happen during XCOM 2, and the DLC, and WOTC, and the Tactical Legacy Pack while maintaining coherence, keeping it "human" (In a game about planet occupying aliens where you are separated as a player from any depth beyond passing quotes that are presented by an in-game algorithm) was difficult, but I hope I pulled it off good enough for people to enjoy what I've done.

And Yes – I know, I had John and Lily get married, I do plan on writing _**INCREDIBLY AWKWARD DRUNKEN RELATIONSHIPS AND STUFF BETWEEN THEM AS ACCOMPANYING ONE-SHOTS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED**_

=P

I've also gone back through the last 2 chapters and 2 codex's and tidied up, gotten rid of further spelling or grammar mistakes, added quotes to the tops of the entries tried to make them more appealing to read through, you are all welcome. =P

Also, the next Codex Entry "The Birth of the Pan-Human-Union" will cover the last stretch before we meet up once again with the plot.

It will cover the period of time from 2041 to 2157, and start truly mashing together the story-lines of the XCOM universe thus far with the Mass Effect universe (Good 'ole Shanxi eh?) and then 2183 (Eden Prime) hopefully either in the same chapters, or alternating chapters to keep everything fresh for me to write, and you guys to read.

So in the mean time, I'll catch you all in the next Codex Entry – The Birth of the Pan-Human-Union from 2041 to 2157.


	6. Pan-Human-Union - Codex Entry 4

**..**

 **..**

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 **/-/ Codex / Non-Citadel Races /-/**  
 **/-/ The Pan-Human-Union /-/ Historical Timeline 2015 – 2157 /-/**

– **Please be aware the following codex entry is lifted from Civilian information from the Pan-Human-Union Internet, disclosed information from the public XCOM "UFOPEDIA" Equivalent as well as additional information gathered from civilian and military sources. Some discrepancies or questionable sources may exist within this information. –**

 **/-/ 2041-2157 Formation of The Pan-Human-Union /-/**

* * *

" _Human history is a litany of blood, shed over different ideals of rulership and afterlife . . . . with the events that removed these catalysts within human society this Unit sees the values Humanity has placed in it's post first-contact governments as 87.4% optimal._

 _Individuality is valued, but the (Human) species must survive at the costs at all others._

 _This unit does question your path of diplomacy however Shepard Commanders."_

 ** _Geth Platform "Legion" To both (Master Sergeant) Jane and (Commander) John Shepard On-board the P.H.U – Omaha, 2185 AD._**

* * *

The Second Ethereal War ended in the 21st of August, 2041 – and while much of the history preceding these events was either lost or simply not recorded; we know from post operation briefings XCOM assaulted and destroyed the ADVENT black-sites where human beings had been churned into genetic paste with factory like precision.

Next came the destruction of the ADVENT forges where they mass-produced ADVENT's own half-human soldiers meant to keep mankind in check and eventually the Ethereal command site – where the 7 Temple ships had been moved and combined in secret (and up until this day) , undiscovered location (rumored by many to be the depths of the deepest ocean point on planet Earth, the Mariana Trench) and formed into their temple fortress.

The final actions of the Commanders AVATAR was to kill the final Ethereals, and then open the Gate for the XCOM operatives to escape as the psionic energies unleashed within the temple started to tear the facility apart and unleash a Psionic tear that would eventually rip the entire planet in half.

With the Ethereals dead and the psionic network no longer in existence many alien species simply died on the spot, dropping like puppets which had their strings cut. Others simply stopped breathing, or starved to death or died of dehydration as they had no idea how to sustain themselves. The Majority of the ADVENT occupation forces where left as blank slates, with no memories, identities or culture – an issue which would become a central point of their identity as a species in the years to come.

With the death throes of the Ethereals every ADVENT trooper on the planet found themselves unshackled from their masters control – the aliens openly panicked or rebelled against themselves; others simply forgot how to breath, eat of drink and others somehow managed to cobble together a mental state of psychotic madness by the time the Rebellion was complete only Four species of any note survived on the planet Earth.

 _ **Humanity**_ , finally free after 26 years of Alien deception – was left at a mere 2.2 billion souls from an original 8 billion, with no national governments and identities besides the city bound humans, the resistance bound humans and the faction known as the "Reapers" (of no relation to the greater threat only hinted at by this time by the defeated Ethereals). Humanity was attempting to slowly rebuild and disperse from the ADVENT cities that had once been their unknowing prisons.

 _ **Freed Advent/Skirmishers**_ , numbering around 50 million – former peacekeepers who had been kept under direct Psionic control. Piece by piece the beginnings of a culture had been birthed throughout the Second Ethereal War by Betos T'voan and Pratal Mox. Without any history or national identity to identify with as a people; no art, music or literature the Skirmishers and Freed Advent had barely been anywhere between 26 years at their oldest, or days old at their youngest – fresh from the Ethereals cloning facilities akin to the ADVENT forge. They didn't even know they could reproduce as a species (being a significantly altered hybrid of human and alien DNA) and simply didn't know if they could exist as a species past their current generation.

In terms of culture, the Freed Advent or Skirmishers (depending on how they wanted to be referred to at a time) fell into the role of mankind's protectors by blood bond. The Blood Bond began as a simple vow that no human should ever have to die at alien hands ever again, and should a call to arms be made every freed Advent or Skirmisher would be expected, without question or hesitation to lay down their lives in protection of the original human species. Under ADVENT control they had simply committed to many war crimes against humanity and not knowing if they could survive past their (at the time) current generation they set about organizing the 50 million battle ready soldiers to protect humanity from the final two species that called the Earth their home.

 _ **The Lost**_ _ **.**_ Numbering at almost 1.2 billion themselves, these creatures where the results of the Elerium Aerosol Dispersal Pods (EADP's) launched by the Ethereals and their thrall races into Cities, towns, villages and terror sites of value before the raids launched upon them in the First Ethereal War.

These pods contained a concentrated and highly exotic form of Elerium in an Aerosol form mixed with complex immune-suppressants, sedatives and mutagens – if they did not kill anyone unfortunate enough to be near them upon landing, would saturate an area of up to 100 meter across in highly toxic and nearly deadly gases and chemical mixtures.

The Lost where a side effects of the pods launched upon the Ethereals return (as the pods from the first war where either collected and dissembled by XCOM salvage teams during the war or destroyed via drone missile strike or destroyed on site with controlled detonations) and because of this the long term effects of these pods never became truly seen until the Second Ethereal War when XCOM began working in earnest with the resistance faction known as "The Reapers".

Evidence in the field showed these creatures to be partially rotted yet still alive, Elerium diffused into the bloodstream could provide hundreds of years worth of energy to the mutated cells in the body that no longer needed oxygen to function and non-essential organs had simply rotted away to pulp within these primal monsters. Despite decades of testing – no single member of The Lost has ever displayed abilities beyond those of a primitive hunter-killer. They track their prey by a combination of noise, and an unseen ability to track Elerium traces without visual tracking of them (for instance, through walls or beyond line of sight) and move in enormous hoards to drown the offending target in a sea of bodies who would bludgeon, bite or claw their target to death.

Many humans note the similarities between The Lost and "zombies" (-sic In human history, they had often written about "Zombies" of various types which where human dead that had reanimated/?/ and desired to feast on human flesh, similar to the Asari legends of Ardat-Yashi) but the familiarity ends there. The Lost cannot reproduce by biting their target – but their mutagenic tissues can cause infections and secondary infections as well as mutations over time that will kill their target without significant medical treatment. They are attracted by noise, but have no preference to where the noise comes from (other than tracking in a general direction) and how loud each individual noise is, but once one member of The Lost is drawn, thousands more are probably behind them.

At 1.2 billion in number they are actually the third largest population on the planet Earth, with the smallest of all populations being Free Advent/Skirmishers, then The Lost, then Baseline Humanity and the last faction explained below – the alien race known as The Chrysalids.

 _ **Chrysalids**_ _ **.**_ have a total unknown population, but due to their existence on every continent on the planet combined with their ability to use any living being with a mass over a specific threshold and their ability to multiply rapidly they are estimated to be anywhere between 12-15 billion and are now the dominant life-form on the planet Earth. Without the Elders Psionic network to control the various races under their control as well as the ADVENT coalition most of the aliens on the Earth or in ships later found in space around the Earth would have either died immediately without Psionic control of their over-specialized autonomic functions (in many cases a side effect of their masters generic engineering) or forgot how to breath and suffocated, or forgot how to eat or drink and died slowly over days (or in some cases weeks) as the Chrysalids thrived.

Without the Elders to keep this violently aggressive weaponized plague species under control they set about either infecting or devouring everything in their path – even a single infected human host could be broken down into the genetic materials and biomass to birth 3 more Chrysalids in less than an hour, which would be just as deadly as their original parent and would be fully mature within 3 Earth days. Include with this their ability to adapt to and thrive in every biosphere (and to a depth of 1000 meters and beyond, being proficient swimmers) they would adapt to Persistence Hunting, Pursuit predation, ambush trapping, stalking, scouting and tracking their "Prey" (Sentient or not) and then using swarm tactics to kill said prey and spawn more Chrysalids it is a requirement that any and all visitors to the planet Earth sign a waiver of liability as a form of expressed consent that due to the hazards presented from the Chrysalid species that XCOM or the Pan-Human-Union cannot be held responsible for the deaths of anyone who intentionally lands on the planet (Sic – See attached files for _**Krogan Species**_ – _**Rites of Passage (Request) Earth**_ ).

Despite the dangers presented by Chrysalids and The Lost, expeditions to the Earth happen frequently and are well funded due to the nature of technologies that can be recovered as well as the possibility of pre-first contact art, music and literature as well as items of significant cultural value (Sic – see attached files _**EARTH! Making money on a Deathworld!**_ _ **)**_

With the major species split in such a way, and the majority of the biosphere of the Planet Earth having been decimated by 36 years of prolonged devastation, war, occupation and cruel unforgiving alien masters the two Major species of Earth (Humanity and the factions thereof) struggled through the years of 2041 to 2050.

2041-2050 Without the psi-network one race continues to thrive in earths destroyed biosphere, Chrysalids spread uncontrolled in the oceans and destroy any reclaimed livestock we can gather as well as attacking any coastal city en-mass. The total casualties of the First war, Occupation and Second war are found to have culled mankind from just over 8 billion to under 2 billion in the 36 years since 2015 and even then the home-world can no longer sustain us.

So with XCOM acting as intermediates a form a new government between baseline humans, the Reaper, Freed Advent and Templar factions if formed.

This new government is formed as a federal military state, with the federations being made up of Baseline Humans, The Reaper Faction, Freed Advent and the Templar Faction with 11 members each and an XCOM spokesperson/overseer who maintains vigil over the Unionised government – henceforth known as the _**Pan-Human-Union**_ due to the nature of the species within it (Freed Advent are human derivatives, Templars are psionic capable humans and the Reapers are humans who wish to remain on Earth in spite of the plans put forth throughout 2041-2050 for a massed evacuation of the planet Earth)

Making use of the MEC units left behind from the war, the millions of tons of Elerium, alien alloys and materials and the thousands of UFO's left behind the Pan-Human-Union puts forth it's plans for "Operation Exodus".

Making use of the robotic manpower and above listed materials the Pan-Human-Union would build a series of O'Neill cylinders in earth orbit. Massive space stations capable of housing millions, growing crops, and being the basis of new, human built cities in the stars until the Earth could be cleared and inhabited once again. With Dr. Lily Bradford (formerly Shen) connecting the truncated JULIAN AI into the remains of ADVENT's Psionic network the building of these space stations would be dramatically shortened from decades to years, enough time to at least move the populations still on earth to more defensible positions and further advance the technologies and techniques needed for actual humans to begin building within these stations and becoming self-sufficient.

Although this would cause a temporary schism between the Pan-Human-Union and the Faction known as The Reapers, mankind as a whole needed to abandon their home-world to survive as a species. Despite protests from Volk Volikolov and many other Reaper faction leaders, the plans continued ahead.

By 2050 plans had been put forward for Mankind to move into orbit, using Alien Alloys, Elerium Power-plants and Human ingenuity to build a ring of O'Neill cylinders in Earth Orbit to house the rapidly falling numbers of the Human race and their Free Advent protectors. With the initial hulls laid – work began on sealing the insides of these 35 kilometre long stations so they could house the living workforce needed for the next stage.

By 2062 the first of these stations was completed. Completely self-sufficient with gravity, clean air and water (including large lakes and small oceans) and the ability to grow crops and livestock in controlled conditions and enough space to build and expand within for generations to become this station is named after the famous and now near messiah of the First Ethereal War. Shepard One.

Friday 9th, 2062, John "Central" Bradford passed away – aged 82. Survived by his wife Lily Bradford (formerly Shen) Age 54 and their son. Raymond Bradford (named after his grandfather Raymond Shen Sr) aged 20 (born 22nd may 2042). To this day a controversy surrounds his final words heard from a nurse offering him palliative care, Lily Shen insists his final words where "Showed you, you bastards" while staring out into the stars, the nurse insists she heard "Come and get us, you bastards". Either line seems to fit John, his history of the war and his attitude towards aliens in general.

By 2063, with the materials needed in orbit along side specifically produced robotic and MEC units the starting hulls for 7 more O'Neil cylinders are laid down in Earth orbit.

As construction began on the remaining O'Neill cylinders in orbit around the Earth; the first dedicated shipyards for the construction of wholly human built vessels under the control of the recently formed "Pan-Human-Navy" and "XCOM" with a strict legislation placed upon the weaponry, defences and technologies of which nation, faction or organisation or individual could place upon any one class of vessel.

The idea for this had been put forward by the XCOM Commander ( **IDENTIFICATION REDACTED** ) and XCOM Spokesman ( **IDENTIFICATION REDACTED** ) as a means of allowing war-time technology to spread amongst the general populace and as a means of defence and control against any Ethereal Forces or other Alien forces who would invade the Human race once more.

The general rules of the Legislation was that any individual of the Pan-Human-Union could build, purchase or maintain Chemical based (gunpowder or other propellant) weaponry of any size or class. The reasoning for this was tied into the beginning of a 2 years conscription into military service (from age 19 to 21) for every member of the Pan-Human-Union to raise the ability of the general population to defend themselves as well as instil a sense of dignity, pride and purpose within them.

The second ruling of the weaponry legislation ruled the use of Laser Weaponry to be used by individuals or organisations with a yearly warrant system alongside the open carry of Laser Weapons by police and security forces. Alongside this – the use of Laser Weaponry would be authorised for the general populace if a state of war and a colony/space station where to occur.

Following this, all those of the Pan-Human-Armed and Naval would be equipped with Magnetic Accelerator weaponry for self defence and for general operations at all times (starting with an open carry of a MAG pistol at all times and moving up into other weapon classes should a situation require it). All Pan-Human-Naval vessels would be equipped with Spinal mounted MAG cannons as their primary armament (essentially an up-scaled version of the Infantry MAG cannon used by XCOM during the second Ethereal War) alongside Laser and Missile weaponry of various class and purpose.

The highest tier of Non-XCOM weaponry that would be made available to the Pan-Human-Armed and Naval forces and private individuals should an event occur where the future survival of the human race was in dire threat, Plasma grade weaponry would be made available upon this need.

XCOM however, kept the most powerful grades of all weaponry for themselves – not out of selfishness but out of necessity and fear that the most advanced weaponry available in the human arsenals could be captured and reverse engineered despite being Gene-locked to the individual carrying them and self-detonating charges that would cause the weapon to violently explode upon the users death.

This would prove to be pivotal during the Turian invasions of the Shanxi Colony in 2157 (See records – _**The Second Contact War**_ / _**The Incident of Relay 314**_ / _**Council rejection**_ ).

All XCOM forces would have the following weaponry available to them both as a standard equipment layouts and as personal/situational requirements -

Elerium Enhanced Coilguns – During the First and Second Ethereal wars it was generally presumed that in fact Plasma Weaponry would be the most advanced form of weaponry both developed and fielded due to the proliferate use of Plasma weaponry both by the Ethereals and their Alien subjects. Post-War however it was discovered this was not the case – and that in returning to COIL weaponry Dr. Richard Tygan and a team of Reaper faction soldiers had discovered that the concept of an Elerium charged magnetic Coilguns could retain the combat effectiveness of plasma with considerably higher muzzle velocity and wound penetration whilst also allowing for more "Ammunition" in the field (For plasma weapons this is a misnomer as they collected their charge from individual Elerium cells and could be fired at varying yields – but their cost effectiveness, muzzle velocity and penetration remained lower than that of a Coilgun of the same/equivalent properties). Every XCOM Operative would be given a personal COIL pistol to carry upon them at all times, and XCOM armouries included (but where not limited to) COIL rifles, sub-machine guns, cannons, sniper-rifles, anti-material rifles and carbines.

Plasma Grenades and Blaster Launchers where also XCOM exclusive considering that with the creation of Enhanced Elerium Nuclear Explosive (EENE, or "Kills E-N-E thing" as said by XCOM troops) allowed the use of sub-kiloton yield handheld grenades akin to the "Davy Crockett" portable Nuclear Grenade Launcher from just over a century before.

Fusion Beam Weaponry was relegated to use as either a Turret based weapon for light vehicles or as a spinal weapon system for small starships, but where prone to overheating and where difficult to produce. By 2070 Fusion Beam Weaponry was phased out as a concept in favor of Particle Projector Cannons.

Particle Projection Cannons where one of a few, rare examples of XCOM weaponry shared outside of XCOM as an organisation, as it was part of the " _ **Treaty of Montana**_ " (See " _ **XCOM History year - 2070**_ ") between the Reaper faction and XCOM as the steadily failing relationship between the Reaper Faction and the Pan-Human-Union caused a permanent split within the Reaper faction that lead to one side remaining on Earth, continuing their relations with the Pan-Human-Union and the other side forming a new faction that would eventually become known as " _ **Cerberus**_ " (sic – the three headed "Dog" that served hades in the human underworld of Greek mythology that would protect the gates of "hell") using their considerable funds to build a series of sleeper ships that would launch in the same year (2070) and upon their Slower-Than-Light departure from the solar system the Reaper Faction allowed XCOM access to an intact salvaged MEC grade Particle Cannon from an XCOM outpost near to the destroyed XCOM headquarters from the First Ethereal War.

With this unfortunate setback, the Reaper Faction reformed their ranks and put forward a "Plan of future operations" where the Reaper faction would actively search through Pre-war cities, military and XCOM bases for technologies that could be gathered or relearned from the ruins left behind by the Aliens and Humanity.

The rediscovered technologies offered from MELD which was a precursor to the aliens own genetic alteration technologies, Fusion power, Thorium power-plants and lost technologies such as Scramjet engines and the ability to launch from orbit without the need of Alien or ADVENT relics and vessels any longer.

This area becomes a heavy focus of the Reaper faction as well – being pro-humanity in all it's facets, they invest heavily in technology reclamation, using SPARK units with Reaper troops to investigate old-world sites and cities to reclaim hard-drives of lost technologies and in some cases, intact examples of human ingenuity. Reapers who are injured during these missions regularly choose to become MEC soldiers instead of undergoing medical treatments as MEC technologies are from human hands, despite mankind's medical knowledge now being considerably more powerful it is derived from alien technologies, something the Reapers shun at all costs, something that eventually drives a wedge between the Reaper faction and with XCOM instead of the Pan-Human-Union in the future.

Thursday 10th August 2073, Dr. Richard Tygan passes away aged 80 in the comfort of his own home – he never married and it is unknown if he ever had any children, or any extended family as any and all records where lost when he removed his ADVENT chip from the back of his skull and wiped any reference of his existence from the ADVENT data archives. When interviewed a month before he replied "I see no reason why everyone has a need to know, but it is intriguing".

By 2075 the first true Frigate class vessels are being produced – The first example being the "Freedom" Class Pan-Human Union Frigate. Armed with little more than 6 pulse lasers and a single spinal mounted Magnetic Accelerated Cannon (upscaled from MAG weaponry developed during the second alien war and pulse lasers from the first alien war) it was powered by human developed fusion technology and made use of ION drive thrusters for propulsion.

The main reason for the "Freedom" class being produced in such a way was due to a widening schism between the Pan-Human Union Government and the Reaper Faction, which had maintained its views of not only human supremacy, but also that the space-bourne navies of the human race should be built purely by human hands, using human technologies and human ingenuity.

After the schism of the Reaper faction in 2070 and the departure of the latter half of the faction on the STL sleeper vessels under Cerberus control, the "Freedom" class was in fact, a compromise with the Reaper Faction in the defence of mankind and specifically mankind – which caused further political backlash between the general population, the Skirmisher faction and the Templar faction.

As a result the shipyards of Earth would begin producing Reaper Faction specific vessels on demand (provided the Reaper faction funded and provided the materials to do so), built to be both space and atmosphere capable and using only human weaponry, armour and technology – the process of this began with the Reaper faction outright purchasing a single shipyard for their own purposes and slowly separating themselves from the primary military of the Pan-Human-Union.

As for the Pan-Human-Union navy itself – they became the primary naval force of the combined species of man, making use of Alien Alloys in their construction and armour, Elerium power generators as well as reverse engineered alien technologies – the vessels the Pan-Human-Union would eventually produce would become the "Front line" of defence against any alien forces still awaiting in space. The Pan-Human-Navy would be allowed the use of Elerium enhanced beam laser technology, Elerium enhanced Magnetic Accelerator Cannons and Elerium Enhanced Nuclear warheads as well as access to Shield generation technologies – which where based off of ADVENT shield technology – a temporary shield that could absorb all damage from all sources up until a certain point before needing to recharge.

The vessels from the Pan-Human-Navy would be classes as thus -

* * *

 _ **Fighters**_ (Primarily the firestorm design from the first Ethereal War, revamped for modern use).

* * *

 _ **Bombers**_ (Based off of an enlarged and enhanced firestorm design with elements taken from pre-first contact ground assault platforms).

* * *

 _ **Corvettes**_ (Which would be based in scale and design from the original "Freedom" Frigate at roughly 200-350 meters in length – but with enhanced technologies and abilities based upon technologies lifted from or combined with the Ethereals technology base and Mass Effect technologies from the Martian Prothean Beacon).

* * *

 _ **Frigates**_ (Starting as true combat frigates but accidentally classed as "Cruisers" by the Citadel Council upon the _**Second Contact War**_. The "Predominance" Class frigate is the flagship of this design at 776 meters long with all the above capabilities and weaponry of a standard Pan-Human-Naval vessel)

* * *

 _ **Destroyers**_ (Accidentally classified by the Citadel council as "dreadnoughts" due to their length ranging from 900 meters to 1200 meters) These enormous multi-role vessels carried beam lasers, 4 spinal mounted MAG/cannons surrounding a single spinal mounted plasma beam cannon – these are the true warships of the human race)

* * *

At the time, plans for XCOM vessels where put forth – but the events of 2089 Pan-Human vessels of various types and purpose where crossing the Solar System – and it was at this point when the first inklings of the Prothean ruins on Mars where discovered in the form of faint power readings, radio waves and gravity related anomalies from the surface of the red planet.

The Pan-Human-Union and XCOM went into a complete panic mode and the SOL system announced a call to arms of all armed forces in the solar system – and the Prothean ruins where invaded by a combined armada of XCOM, PHU, Reaper, Skirmisher and Templar forces.

Expecting a heavily fortified Ethereal or ADVENT base. What they found instead was a graveyard – the graveyard of the Prothean research base, a malfunctioning mass effect core, several star-ships, refined element zero, Prothean remains and a single Ethereal Overseer class ship on the surface.

The Ethereals had discovered this site at the same time as the original invasion of 2015 and a single Ethereal had managed to make it's way to the Prothean data archives and beacon – activating them for use by Psionic beings only.

The Ethereals knew of the cycle formed by the ancient Reapers (See " _ **Reapers/Machines**_ " not " _ **Reapers/Faction**_ ") every 50,000 years and that was the "Greater Threat" that they had repeatedly hinted at during both wars without actually disclosing why they had dispensed the misery they needed too upon the planet Earth.

The Deceased Ethereal however, after setting the Prothean beacon to utilize psionic communication methods without the Prothean Genetic Cypher had placed a final entry within the beacon – before allowing itself to die for (still) unknown reasons.

The Ethereal race had achieved space flight without mass effect technology or any other means of breaking or ignoring the speed of light some 100,000 years ago During what the Ethereals would record as (and eventually the Protheans too) the fall of the Insunannon species.

According to the information disclosed by this lone Ethereal they as a species had begun to pick up radio waves, visual signals and the eventual psychic death-throes from every direction surrounding their home system – and also discovered that their biology was unique – no other race in the galaxy at that time (or since, with the exception of the Sectoid race or Ethereal creations) where Psionic – and this rendered them somehow immune Reaper to Indoctrination.

They also discovered to their horror that their home system contained an active "Mass Relay" that the Insunannon had used to monitor their evolution as a species and as a layover point to discharge their Mas Effect Cores in the atmosphere of one of the gas giants in their home system.

Not wanting to risk being discovered by the Reapers, with no means of disabling their mass relay and having no means of cancelling out or removing their own primitive radio and visual signals coming from the Ethereal home-world they would have to undertake massive steps to avoid their discovery and annihilation.

Their plan, hitting Pan-Human-Union Officials and XCOM commanders as being too close to home as that of the Human Reaper Faction off-shoot known as "Cerberus" was to build an enormous vessel that would set out from their home-world and secure a future for their species off of the Mass Relay Network at slower than light speed.

The ones who boarded this first vessel, that would eventually become known as the first "Temple-Ship" and would abandon their name as a species and become known as "The Ethereal Ones" and become little more than ghosts to the rest of their kind and the home-world that they had been born from and their voyage into the void never to return.

The time between the Insunannon culling and the Prothean culling was roughly the same as the histories of previous "Reaping's" that had occurred at roughly 50,000 years apart. They had met with multiple worlds, either using their "Gift" to mind-control or cull the populations and convince them to join with the Ethereals to avoid extinction.

Unfortunately this would turn from being a mission of survival to one of religious dogma, slavery and cruelty as the Ethereals lost sight of their goals and even their morals to find ways and means to perfect their "Gifts" of psionic powers and repeatedly improve the races they claimed over and over again until little vestiges of what they where originally remained.

Eventually they would build another 7 Temple-Ships to achieve this goal and form the Psionic Network between them so as to further drive them forwards in this goal.

By the time of the Prothean cycle and knew of the Prothean Empire 50,000 years ago and achieved limited contact with them, trading technologies every so often and otherwise only requesting to place "Hyperwave Decoders" on limited worlds and in return – gave the Prothean empire the information they should have needed to remove the Reaper backdoor within the Citadel (Via the keepers) and maintain the Mass-Relay network via another forced backdoor the Prothean's could place within the Mass-Relay base-code and the rough knowledge of what the Prothean's would need to survive the coming storm.

Regrettably this would not help them, the Reapers arrived anyway and the Ethereals watched over the centuries as the Prothean race was wiped out in the same pattern of Indoctrination, Separation and Annihilation as the Insunannon.

Thus, The Ethereals decided to move on once again, claiming more races, more technologies and more plans to defeat their "Enemy" which was when they discovered their great failing.

The original Temple-Ship which had fled their home-world 95,000 years ago (roughly 1500AD at this point by Human Conjecture) had departed with only a fraction of their total population, which at that time was considered to be enough for the survival of the species – but never did their ancestors consider that their "Ethereal" one's would obsess over their psionic powers and their mandate of survival regardless of all other concerns above even their ability to reproduce.

With the discovery of the Earth and by extension the human race the Ethereals where preparing another wave of "tests" in the hope they had finally found what they needed to survive.

This lone Ethereal however had split off from the others after the detection of both the Relay and the Ruins – and moved apart from the others to ensure that even these items and the looming threat of the Reapers (estimated at beast, to be arriving by 2150AD by the Ethereals own experience) that at least one race could survive with the message as to why the others would embark on the first Ethereal War of 2015.

What it also found was the Prothean's own records, including those of the Ethereals in their limited contacts and plans for the Prothean super-weapon known as "The Crucible" and before it passed away it lifted those files to immediate access alongside those for Mass-Effect FTL and Principles thereof, Prothean weaponry and Armour alongside record's of the beings own creation of how to (theoretically) compress and enhance the Aliens own Alloys (used in the construction of their Temple-Ships and UFO's) using Mass Effect based principles.

With this knowledge suddenly and literally dumped into the heads of every Templar and Psychic on Mars, the reverse engineering and constant lifting of information from the beacon began in full – as by the Ethereals own clock Humanity had at best another 80 years before an extinction level event the likes of which had never been imagined before was going to be launched in full force through either the (rough descriptions of) Reaper constructed station known as the "Citadel" or from the Galaxy on all sides if the Ethereal/Prothean ploy had proved to be successful.

By the year 2100 the Pan-Human-Union had formed a series of plans to ensure the complete survival of the Union, Humanity and it's subspecies.

Slower-Than-Light crafts of varying sizes and purposes (ranging form military vessels, colony ships, gene-vaults and combinations of the three) launched from the SOL system on various randomly generated and then deleted vectors while Faster-Than-Light fleets did the same.

A combined Pan-Human-Union and XCOM initiative known as the "Andromeda Initiative" was formed with their primary shipyards within the Jovian Moons – they would develop the technologies needed and then construct the vessels needed for the Pan-Human-Union to eventually colonise the Andromeda Galaxy.

Lastly – plans where put forth by both the Pan-Human-Union and XCOM to mass produce combat vessels and fleets on a permanent basis using every weapon at mankind's disposal with the overarching goal of saving the Pan-Human-Union from the horrifying fate that awaited it.

In 2101 the Charon Mass Relay was removed from the ice that encased it and Pan-Human vessels of every type and function burst forth through the relay and those beyond it into the Arcturus system and then the soon to be human colonies beyond it.

Not limited by the size of the Mass Effect cores (due to the primary use of Elerium Generators within Pan-Human-Union vessels) but including the shipbuilding knowledge within the Prothean Beacon, even further star-ships and classifications where laid down and built before what would eventually be the _**Second Contact War.**_

* * *

 _ **Battleships.**_ (Classed as special unit "Super-Dreadnought" Analogues by the Citadel Council) These 2km long monstrosities using Mass Effect Enhanced, Elerium Powered MAG cannons as both spinal mounts (6 in total) and turret based weaponry, relegating beam lasers to point defence purposes. They also mounted a spinal particle cannon, technology used by MEC troopers in the first Ethereal war enhanced with the Prothean designs from the Martian Archive. These vessels also carried the first generation of Mass Effect based Missiles – making use of Elerium Enhanced Nuclear Warheads and a internal Mass Effect Core – these FTL speed weapons could reach effective 600 Gigaton yield, and where nearly non-interceptable or uninterruptible once fired. Once the Citadel realised the existence and potential devastation of these weapons their policies on "Weapons of mass destruction" had to be re-written to include weaponry capable of obliterating entire worlds in a single, targeted strikes.

* * *

 _ **Carriers**_ (Again Classed as special unit "Super-Dreadnought" Analogues by the Citadel Council) Based off of the Battleship hull layout, but replacing the extensive spinal mounts with space for thousands of fighters, bombers and troop transports – they made use of only beam lasers for point defence and carried no other extensive armament.

* * *

 _ **Battlecruisers**_ (Yet again Classed as special unit "Super-Dreadnought" Analogues by the Citadel Council – it was not until the Pan-Human-Union disclosed their total fleet size that the same council believed that Battlecruisers and Carriers where standard fleet units alongside their sister ships) Also based off the Battleship hull but removing 2 of it's Spinal MAG cannons to mount another Particle Beam and a number of it's turrets where removed and replaced with an innovative "Spiral" mounting particle cannon system which allowed the central beam to be split off in multiple directions to smaller sub-turrets which replaced the standard Laser or MAG turrets of a Battleship. To enhance the ship further it was equipped with additional Elerium Generators, an additional Mass Effect core to improve it's speed and enlarged engines and heat radiator systems.

* * *

 _ **Dreadnoughts**_ – The largest vessels every produced by Pan-Human-Union, XCOM or even by mankind. These mind-boggling vessels are upwards of 3 standard kilometres long and featured no less than 6 spinal mounted Particle accelerator cannons, Beam laser turrets, MAG cannon turrets, broadside MAG cannons and the thickest armour mankind had ever produced for a Pan-Human-Naval vessel.

* * *

There are in existence XCOM versions of every single ship type listed here, but due to the classified nature of the paramilitary organisation (being heeded as the first, last and final line of defence for the Pan-Human-Union) their weapons and capabilities are purely conjecture within this Codex Entry – they are rumoured to utilized upscaled versions of the standard Particle Accelerator Cannon, Plasma Weaponry as Point Defence Systems and an additional form of "Shielding" that rather than standard Kinetic Shielding (via mass effect technology) can completely negate all damage against an XCOM vessel either for a set time to too a certain threshold.

The existence of technology has been recorded on many occasions, but it is pure conjecture on how it works from the behalf of the Citadel Council.

The interim years of 2101 to 2150 has the Pan-Human-Union building ships, stations and colonies as fast as it is able too, including the worlds and systems of -

* * *

 _ **Alpha Centauri**_

 _ **Amaterasu**_

 _ **Anhur**_

 _ **Bernard's Star**_

 _ **Demeter**_

 _ **Epsilon Erendi**_

 _ **Groombridge 34**_

 _ **Lalande 21185**_

 _ **Luyten's Star**_

 _ **Proxima Centauri**_

 _ **Ross 154**_

 _ **Ross 247**_

 _ **Sathur**_

 _ **Shanxi**_

 _ **Terra Nova**_

 _ **Tau Ceti**_

 _ **TipTree**_

 _ **Wolf 359**_

* * *

During this time of expansion, Dr. Lily Bradford passed away – at the request of her Son Raymond Bradford and family, the time, date and reasons for passing have been removed from this Codex.

The final entry to this Codex links directly into the following -

 _ **2157AD Second Contact War**_ _**Battle Of Shanxi**_ _ **"Incident" of Relay 314**_

Please select a file to continue.

* * *

 _ **/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

HOORY SHIT THIS IS 20 PAGES LONG.

Okay, I lied – there will be ONE MORE codex entry before the story starts in earnest, and I do apologize for the wall of TL;DR but I never thought about how many points I would have to cover in the history of events between XCOM 2 (including the DLC's and expansions) into even Pre-Mass Effect 1 events.

I will point out considering how far things have diverged and been expanded upon that this isn't a "HFY" fanfic – considering the first chapter had sheer fucking petatons launched in a volley against Sovereign and it simply sat there and took it, this story will have the base technologies of the races set a little higher than basic ME standard, but still set within the realms of _**"OH HOLY FUCK WHAT THE HELL IS THAT GIANT BLUE SPACE SQUID DOING NOW AND HOW DO WE KILL IT?"**_.

That said – yes Cerberus did indeed start far earlier in this version of history and by 2157 no-one had any idea where they are or what they are doing. Yes, Earth is a classified Deathworld that is considered to be worse than even fucking Tuchanka and yes, that little nod above, the Krogan fucking -love- those crazy arse humans called Reapers, the endless zombies and the bugs . . . the endless killy, stabby, crazy bugs.

Also – I never realized just how mindbogglingly bad FF's document editing and story update system was and how it just loves to ignore changes to page layout, spelling and grammar for days after I've made them. So yet -again- I've had to go back in my own copies of the chapters and make the changes there and then re-upload them.

And I've done that no less than three times now for each chapter. Eeek.

So, one more Codex Entry with some direct story telling, then Eden Prime. Cool? Cool.

Maybe If I say it enough I might just believe it myself.


	7. Pan-Human-Union - Codex Entry 5

**..**

 **..**

 **..**

 **/-/ Codex / Non-Cidatel Races /-/  
/-/ The Pan-Human-Union /-/ Historical Timeline – 2157 Onwards /-/**

– **Please be aware the following codex entry is lifted from Civilian information from the Pan-Human-Union Internet, disclosed information from the public XCOM "UFOPEDIA" Equivalent as well as additional information gathered from civilian and military sources. Some discrepancies or questionable sources may exist within this information. –**

 **/-/ Sunday 2nd January – Friday 16th September 2157 /-/**

* * *

" _ATTENTION AND HEED TO. SHANXI SYSTEM LOCAL CALL TO ARMS. CODENAMES BANDERSNATCH, HYDRA AND WINTER CONTINGENCY HAS BEEN DECLARED."_

 **Pan-Human-Union Emergency Alert System, Wednesday 5th January 2157.**

* * *

" _As much as it pains to me to admit it, these 'Turian' bastards are as efficient at the concept of Total War as we are. Under wartime legislation CT-CA-L-17963 I am hereby authorising the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction as well as the activation of all XCOM sleeper units. May god have mercy on us all."_

 **General Douglas Williams, Friday 27th January 2157.**

* * *

" _BY THE SPIRITS! Commander . . . Commander Sidnias. The humans just detonated 16 nuclear devices across our primary landing sites."_

 _"What . . . give me information ensign. Give me facts, figures"_

 _"Estimated yields are between 50 to 500 . . . Megatons. They withdrew their ground forces the moment they finished evacuating the civilian populace and nuked every city, ground base of operations and star-port we had more than a division in."_

" _Get me a direct line to the Primarch and send it to my ready room. Then open a comm line to the captains of the rest of the fleet."_

" _Sir?"_

 _"If these monsters are willing to use weapons of mass destruction then we need to do the same. You have your orders ensign."_

 **Recorded conversation between Commander Sidnias (Turian Hierarchy 197** **th** **fleet) and an unnamed Ensign aboard Turian Dreadnought "Incorruptible" Thursday 3** **rd** **February 2157.**

* * *

Noted amongst the Human Races of the Pan-Human-Union as the "Second Contact War" this conflict is noted by many amongst the Citadel Council as being the closest event to an Interstellar War since the Krogan Rebellions.

Since the year 2101 (Pan-Human Calendar) vessels of the Pan-Human-Union and it's various factions had been spreading from their cradle system SOL in every direction, using both the Mass Relay Network and FTL to spread in every direction both as a colonization effort and as a military build-up of arms to prevent their species from being as close to extinction as they had been during the First and Second Ethereal wars.

Coming into contact with another alien race was an unavoidable eventuality – but what neither side considered was what the races of the Pan-Human-Union would do in the face of the Turian Hierarchy or vice versa.

One race had been nearly annihilated by their first contact with another species and was set on a species wide and governmental mandate of survival at all costs.

The other was often believed to be the military arm of the Citadel Council, often regarded as a strong minded race of "Heroes" from their history in the Krogan Rebellions as well as the many hundred of peacekeeping operations since their integration into the before mentioned council.

A difference of mere hours would have lead to the two sides never encountering each other at all as history would later discover.

On Sunday 2nd January 2157 the Pan-Human-Naval (henceforth shortened to PHU) explorer vessel "Light on the Horizon" was undergoing standard probe launching operations through the Shanxi-Theta Mass Relay. Upon the launch and return of their probes they gathered limited information on the system on the other side.

After receiving base telemetry and information regarding the system on the other side the PHU "Light on the Horizon" moved through the Shanxi-Theta Relay and initiated a holding orbit of the relay whilst it launched further probes throughout the system.

Whilst the "Light on the Horizon" maintained a holding orbit it also maintained active and passive systems lock with the mass relay in case of a needed extraction – which would eventually be detected by the Turian 45th patrol fleet that would be moving through the system as part of an active tracking operation of known pirates in the area.

The 45th patrol fleet (consisting of the standard fleet composition of 1 Cruiser and 3 Turian Frigates) on arrival to the system pinged the local mass relays to confirm if any had been used recently, and upon finding the Shanxi-Theta relay had not only been used recently but was still being held in an "active" state moved to investigate.

At roughly the same time the PHU "Light on the Horizon" also detected the Turian fleet and began an active scan of the Turian systems as well as activating the ships primary weapons in case the Turian vessels turned out to be Ethereal ones instead and the Crew may have been needed to fire the first shots of what they though was the beginning of the Third Ethereal War.

In turning from passive to active sensor scanning the unsuspecting crew of the PHU "Light on the Horizon" had effectively drawn a bullseye on the Turian fleet and because of the sheer difference in technological capabilities the Turian fleets thought they where under attack due to the fact that the PHU vessels sensor arrays effectively blinded their VI driven arrays with a blanked of ECM and ECCM white noise that made it impossible to achieve any form of active or passive data collection themselves.

Combined with the sudden jump in power readings the Turian's could detect, registering as an almost obscene amount of power being poured into activating weapon arrays, the Turian's opted not to send their first contact package or even any form of communications at all regarding the active-state mass relay the explorer vessel was in orbit of (as the activation of any mass relay was lawed as illegal by the citadel following the Rachni Wars centuries before) and instead fired a volley of long range mass relay rounds at the offending vessel.

Travelling faster than any MAG or COIL based weapon but lacking in firepower in comparison to the former the PHU "Light on the Horizon" was caught amid-ship, damaging several decks and killing several crewmembers, when it in turn fired its primary weapon – the spinal mounted Magnetic Accelerator Cannon at the "Primary" Turian vessel, the Hierarchy Cruiser "Revolution".

The several first shots missed entirely due to the lower muzzle velocity of the PHU vessel, but the first volley had been leading their shots so as to get a basic sense of the vessels speed and tactical abilities, and when the Revolution was hit it was hit from bow to stern (as both ships had been facing nose to nose despite the differences in light seconds between the closing Turian fleet and stationary PHU vessel) and completely incapacitated due to the massive damage it had sustained.

The three Turian frigates moved to intercept the PHU vessel (which due to it's length of 773 meters, being based off of the standard PHU "Frigate" class hull – but mistakenly classed as a "Cruiser" analogue by the Turian forces) and began their standard wolf-pack tactics to attack and overpower the enemy vessel.

The PHU vessel then turned, and even while retreating managed to eliminated another cruiser before moving to transition through the Mass Relay. At this same point, one of the two remaining Turian Frigates launched a Disrupter Torpedo as an attempt to damaged or even shut-down the offending vessels kinetic fields (the PHU vessel, unknown to the Turian's only had basic shielding for interstellar debris and relied on it's hull armour as primary defence) before launching another attack.

This attack did no happen, but the disruptor torpedo did hit it's mark. Whilst the PHU "Light on the Horizon" was moments away from transitioning through the Relay, and the information regarding this "First" contact between Humanity and the Turians was pieced together later from the remaining in-system probes that had been left by the "Light on the horizon" and the remaining Frigates of the Turian patrol fleet.

The PHU "Light on the Horizon" was lost with all hands as it transitioned through the relay as a stream of faster than light atoms that almost destroyed the station-keeping PHU Frigate "He's a one stop shop" that was defending the Shanxi colony side of the Shanxi-Theta relay.

Moving as fast as their secondary thrusters could allow the PHU "He's a one stop shop" crawled away from the relay whilst using tight-beam laser communications to contact the other 8 PHU vessels in the Shanxi Defence Fleet.

 _ **P-HU "With a bit of rock music"**_  
 _ **P-HU "Remind me that it's killing time"**_  
 _ **P-HU "Fire within my soul"**_  
 _ **P-HU "I walk alone"**_  
 _ **P-HU "Don't look back"**_  
 _ **P-HU "It's time for Dying"**_  
 _ **P-HU "Don't put your blame on me"**_  
 _ **P-HU "I really wanna be right here"**_

With the realization that the "Light on the Horizon" had recently been scouting said Mass Relay and that the atomised stream that had returned was consistent with the Alien-Alloys that the Pan-Human-Navy used in their vessels it was assumed that the "Light on the Horizon" had made contact with a (presumed Ethereal) threat and destroyed whilst attempting to retreat.

However without complete verification the PHU fleet moved to defensive position halfway between Shanxi Colony and the Shanxi-Theta relay whilst the PHU "With a bit of rock music" Moved through to the Shanxi-Alpha Replay towards the Arcturus System and thus alert PHU and XCOM forces of possible Ethereal contact.

On Wednesday the 5th of January 2157 the Turians returned and passed through the Shanxi-Theta relay, re-enforced with an additional fleet of 1 Turian "Lance" class Dreadnought (The command dreadnought TFV "Incorruptible", 14 cruisers, 42 frigates and joined fleet support vessels).

* * *

 _ **/-/**_ ** _ **Please be aware the following codex entry is regrettably censored due to the Pan-Human-Union and XCOM combat legislations. As a result the following entries are an amalgamation of (confirmed) Turian Hierarchy records and (public but unconfirmed) Pan-Human-Union and disclosed XCOM sources. We apologize for the possible inconsistencies this may create /-/**_**

* * *

 **0332 (military time) 05012157 (military calendar) camera footage, (combined with) open radio broadcast and civilian data from Weather Monitoring Satellite A-47. Shanxi Orbit.**

"You seeing this Killing Time actual? Mass Relay Activity has just gone up like a fireworks displ- HOLY HELL! SOMEONE WAKE THE CAPTAIN NOW!"

(In upper right corner of visual feed the Shanxi-Theta relay can be seen powering up in preparation for Mass relay transition. Records at this time collate with the Turian Hierarchy's records of the fleet sent to "pacify" the new unknown race both for their activation of the Shanxi-Theta relay but their "aggressive" actions taken on the previous patrol fleet)

"All hands, repeat all hands – Unknown Alien fleet has passed through Shanxi-Theta relay, estimated vessel count is 50 vessels, all warship analogues"

"OH SHIT! Manoeuvring thrusters!"

(From the same satellite view the 8 vessels of the Pan-Human-Naval Shanxi Defence fleet disperse as the Turians begin the standard naval practice of long range kinetic assaults to disperse an enemy fleet before entering true contact range)

"This is PHU Don't Look Back to unknown vessels you have entered the sovereign space of the Pan-Human-Union and fired without provocation, you have 15 seconds to stand-down and initiate contact or we will be forced to retaliate"

(The PHU vessels turn but are still dispersed – although the satellite is not military in nature it is clear that the PHU vessels are arming their weapon arrays and moving to combat posture)

"This is Commander Sidnias of the Turian Hierarchy's 19th Pacification fleet to the unknown primitives, you have 10 seconds to stand down and surrender to the Turian peoples for the crimes of activating Mass Relays against Citadel law and the destruction of Two Turian vessels."

(The Turian communication was not translated until much later in the Pan-Human-Union/Turian conflict, but as neither side was willing to stand down the situation escalated regardless)

Within moments the two fleets open fire on each other – the 8 Pan-Human-Navy vessels against a fleet of 57 Turian vessels.

The Turian naval doctrine of the time was based around Mass Effect cores not being able to effectively dissipate heat in combat, and would alternate between long range assaults with spinal mass drivers and broadside equivalents whilst PHU vessels where able to dissipate their heat into buffers recreated from lost Human science (See notes for " _Human static recollection technologies_ " and "t _hermoelectric recollection batteries_ ") allowed PHU vessels to last far longer in combat than their Turian counterparts, moving in and out of combat range at multiple points and vectors combining MAG fire with point-laser fire and eventually Elerium-Enhanced Nuclear Missiles.

The Turians, horrified by the capabilities of these 8 cruiser-analogue vessels that behaved (much to their later surprise) more like frigates unleashed every tactic and weapon at their disposal, including the Turians own nuclear stockpile onboard the Incorruptible.

8 hours later, the last of the PHU vessels "Remind me that it's killing time" put an end to the conflict in orbit, with it's sister ships destroyed and the Killing time apparently falling apart from internal damage and critical strikes to the vessels superstructure, rammed directly into a Turian cruiser and self destructed their Elerium Generators – annihilating themselves, the cruiser and another 2 frigates on top of the already impressive kill-count for the total Pan-Human-Fleet.

8 hours into the "Second Contact War" and several thousand members of both Pan-Human forces and the Turian fleet where dead, and the Turian fleet had been reduced to the Incorruptible, 4 cruisers and the bare-bone remains of 11 frigates. With the victory in Turian hands (as far as they where concerned) Commander Sidnias had sent word for 3 of his frigates to return to the Turian fleet waiting on the other side of the Shanxi-Theta relay, which included salvage vessels, fleet tenders, repair ships, mobile medical vessels and the transport ships which carried the soldiers that the Turian Primarch had intended to pacify this new race with and then introduce them to the Citadel Council as a new protectorate race, the fleets movements hidden within the orders for the pirate pacifications taking place in the same region of space.

Upon the Turian fleet entering Shanxi space however, the call to arms had already been broadcast across Shanxi's surface – and all non essential and non-combat trained children and elderly had been evacuated into city-linked shelters deep beneath the surface of Shanxi.

Out of the total population of 3.4 Million Humans and Skirmishers 2.3 million where available for active re-enlistment under wartime protocols alongside a planet side defence force of 200,000 in active service across the world of Shanxi.

10 hours after the initial battle begun, Turian drop-ships started making landfall across the colony of Shanxi and its cities, star-ports, factories and military bases.

Throughout the month of starting from the 5th to the 27th of January Pan-Human-Armed forces and Turian armed forces stuck out at each other in conflicts ranging from squad level engagements to division or battalion scaled ground battles where the Pan-Human forces had the advantages of knowing where their enemy would strike and how, and how to react on their own terms but the Turians held a ground and space advantage as well as being able to call upon re-enforcements from both their fleet in orbit and the extended fleets on the far side of the Shanxi-Theta relay.

As PHU cities, installations and bases began to fall

wartime legislation CT-CA-L-17963 was enacted by the ground-side General of the Pan-Human-Armed forces Douglas Williams, a scorched Earth policy that had been written a century ago in the event of the Ethereals (or an equivalent race) pushing the Pan-Human-Union to the brink of extinction once more.

20 co-ordinated strikes with Long-Range Elerium-Enhanced Nuclear Warheads where launched, and 16 managed to hit their targets, ranging from lost PHU cities to important bases and star-ports where no PHU forces remained and the forces could not be spared to re-take them. So if the PHU could not retake them then the Turians could not be allowed to have them either.

The Turian's Commander Sidnias reaction was one of pure shock – although the two races had managed to pick up elements of each others culture and languages through commonly used words or terms (including active and passively gained intelligence) the Turians never doubted that Shanxi was the Pan-Human-Unions home-world, and the use of Nuclear Weaponry both on a Garden World (breaking another Citadel law) but on their very planet of origin was an unthinkable act that the galaxy had not seen since the Krogan had used nuclear weapons on themselves on Tuchanka or in their repeated use of nuclear weapons in the rebellions before the Turians rose into the Citadel.

With their conclusions clear this new race was obviously a race of butchers and barbarians with no respect for the laws of the Citadel, it's peoples or even themselves – and so Commander Sidnias once more contacted the Turian Primarch for concessions to use weapons of Mass Destruction himself, arguing the only way to defeat these barbarians was to wield "a bigger stick" in putting them down.

Shortly before permission was given, the scorched earth policy also gave the activation of the XCOM units that had been hidden in secret across the world (it is common practice that even though PHU units fight along XCOM ones, XCOM bases, vessels and even operatives remain un-named and unrecorded beyond the most basic of details, for instance, names, dates of construction or conscription ect to prevent leaks of intelligence that may harm XCOM operations) and begin their own operations against the Turian invaders beyond the already co-ordinated attacks against the Turians within the PHU, much to the surprise of many PHU commanding officers when their staff simply got up and left for XCOM operations to be then replaced with additional PHU staff and soldiers to prevent a loss of ranks.

As Turian mass-drivers began to launch kinetic strikes against further PHU bases and installations XCOM began actively striking back against the Turians, taking live prisoners for their own interrogation purposes and examples of weaponry and armour for reverse engineering onboard the XCOM Dreadnought "Dark Sentencer" which was based and cloaked somewhere on the central continent, southern hemisphere of Shanxi.

In response to these actions from both sides the fighting on Shanxi multiplied tenfold, the Turians would firebomb entire city blocks to eliminate lone fire teams, and Kinetic strikes from orbit prevented the PHU from forming any large scale actions against their enemy. Meanwhile rumours began to spread amongst the Turian forces of a PHU Blackwatch-unit equivalent (Blackwatch being the Turian Armed Special Forces, a step below council spectres for all intents and purposes). Members of this unit where actively equipping PHU units with plasma weaponry as and when they could them (on top of the existing PHU armouries of handheld lasers and MAG weaponry) whilst they themselves where equipped with armour that had limited flight capabilities, stealth and cloaking abilities whilst utilising weaponry that outclassed even pre-existing railgun or kinetic weaponry (in the form of XCOM COIL guns) whilst also displaying abilities that outclassed known Biotic abilities, up to and including PHU soldiers able to incapacitate Turian soldiers simply by looking at them, or ripping combat intelligence out of officers minds alongside most of their sanity. These White haired, purpled eyed humans where apparently refereed to as "Psionics" but Turian intelligence about them was so spotty that most regarded them as myths or ghosts of the battlefield (XCOM maintains that Psionic operatives where active acrossevery theatre of was on Shanxi colony, but regrets that it cannot disclose the exact nature of these operations).

* * *

 ** _/-/ The following footage was donated with the permission of the PHU armed forces alongside the permission of Zaeed Masini, 5th Shanxi Skirmishers post-war as part of the Pan-Human-Union/Turian Hierarchy Cross-Species-Specialised-Combat-Training (refereed to shorthand as CSSCT) /-/_**

* * *

Zaeed dusted himself down after the grapple from the toppling city block.

What had once been a combination of offices and small business units built half-covering an open plaza of food courts and market stalls was now nothing more than the tattered remains of rebar, alien-alloy structure supports, concrete and dirt.

The flanged chuckle of Zaeed himself can be heard as he pulls himself to his feet and grabs his standard issue Kal-10 Plasma Bull-pup.

"VOX-TALA FOR TEN YOU TURIAN BUTTFUCKERS!" He roars to seemingly himself as he ejects the spent elerium core of the weapon and replaces it with a fresh cell while policing the old one in a belt pouch of his powered armour.

Various HUD symbols flash across both Zaeed's vision and the recorded footage as he turns his head upwards and towards the left, a targeting reticule briefly appears over and then changes colour from a dull Gray to green indicating a friendly unit before then marking her with the name of Met'van Dorus appearing alongside.

"Met'van Report!" Zaeed orders as he watches the fellow Skirmisher grapple hook from rooftop to rooftop while at the same time firing near constant burst suppression fire at an unseen target to her side.

"I have the Turian dogs pinned down in the 12

th municipal school, for what little cover they think it can give them! NO MORE BALATEN ALIEN SCUM!" The skirmisher woman replies as Zaeed turns his view to another rooftop and in turn fires his own grapple to join her.

Together the pair launch grapples from rooftop to rooftop, firing suppression fire in three round bursts towards a pinned squad of Turian soldiers who in turn fired back with their own Phalanx Mass-Effect assault rifles from behind an assembled mash of cover made from fallen concrete in a rough circle against the hull of an overturned car.

"Met'van – give me a plasma grenade behind that car, I want them out of cover and split!" Zaeed whispers the order with a veiled sense of malevolence.

"By your order" was all Met'van returned as she split off on another vector, running as fast as she could along a rooftop parallel to Zaeed as she unhooks and prepares a grenade launcher attached to her power armours back holster and fires off 2 plasma grenades in quick succession as she continues to run, re-holstering the launcher and returning to firing three round busts from her own bullpup. At the same time Zaeed pauses for a moment and shoulders his own bullpup and firing off his own three round bursts at the Turians who where forced to abandon their cover. The first Turian was caught from his torso, the first shot hitting centre mass, the second in the neck and the third in the forehead and the unfortunate soldier drops dead.

The second Turian (Later positively identified as Desolas Arteirus) catches the first plasma bolt in his hip, sending him to the ground screaming in pain as the second bolt manages to impact in the knee, burning through the joint entirely, Desolas is seen screaming in pain as the plasma cauterises the wound and the severed leg lands some distance away from him. The Turian (at the time) presumed dead (later reports showed he had survived his amputation falling unconscious through shock) as Zaeed trains his weapon on his next target.

Combined fire from Met'van pins down another Turian with suppressive fire as Zaeed combines fire and guns down the soldier before they can react.

With the final Turian in sight, Zaeed prepares his grappling hook and fires it directly at the Turian sergeant, with a sickening thunk the Sergeant is impaled by the flying skewer and then pulled back to Zaeed screaming. As Zaeed prepares the Fusion claws on his right hand gauntlet for a decapitating strike the Turian manages to his credit to un-holster his pistol and fire multiple shots at Zaeed and the camera view is sent flying.

Once the camera settles on the ground some meters away, Zaeed and the Turian in question can be seen – Zaeed has blood flowing freely from his bald head and his milky/white enlarged eyes, telltale signs of the skirmishers once ADVENT origins can be seen.

"By . . . the spiri-" The Turian begins to exclaim as Zaeed forces the powered claws into the soldiers torso, stabbing through the armour and piercing into flesh and organs.

"No Spirits today Turian, Just Skirmishers -"

Zaeed pushes and twists the blade, cutting and burning through the unfortunate victim. The Turians life-signs terminate.

"- And Bloody, bloody rage." Masini finished aloud as he drops the Turian to the floor. He then turns, still visibly wounded, picks up the helmet and puts it back on.

"Zaeed are you-" Met'ven's voice can be heard over the local comm-net.

"Combat Functional" Masini replies reassuringly as he then prepares to move once more.

* * *

Over the next month both sides fought themselves to a bloody standstill, with both races making full use of weapons of mass destruction, scorched earth tactics and with rapidly mounting casualties on both sides, the Turians call for a massive rise in re-enforcements from the various bases and supply trails that dotted the path between the Turian space and the Pan-Human colony.

This massive upsurge of activity finally catches the eyes of the Salarian Special Tasks group, who begin active monitoring of Turian forces along these routes in the hopes of either finding a willing mole or unwilling mark for them to edge their way into Turian Intelligence on Site to confirm the rumours of the discovery of a new race.

Pan-Human-Armed and Naval forces at the same time where almost finished gathering their own forces for "Operation Annihilator" as a sizeable fleet of both PHU and XCOM warships, support vessels and troop transports where waiting on the far side of the Shanxi-Alpha relay in the Arcturus system.

On 15th February 2157 Operation Annihilator made transition through the Shanxi-Alpha relay, the joint task force comprised of -

XCV _**"Gravediggers and Gunslingers"**_  
(XCOM "Supremacy class Dreadnought)

XCV Cruisers  
 _ **"Everything Evil"**_  
 _ **"Time Consumer"**_  
 _ **"Welcome Home"**_  
 _ **"The Willing Well"**_  
 _ **"The End Complete"**_

As well as Xcom Frigates of various sizes, tonnages and weapon load-out's at a 4-1 ratio to the 5 cruisers of the XCOM fleet.

The PHU Fleet was also based around it's own Dreadnoughts; including no less than 6 in it's primary fleet, 14 battleships, 2 carriers, 3 battlecruisers, 22 destroyers and 103 frigates and their support vessels.

Lead by the XCOM vessels, the full Pan-Human-Fleet threw themselves at full velocity of the Turians fleet, and despite the recent Turian re-enforcements, the majority of the fleet was either destroyed or crippled with the exception of the THV Incorruptible herself and 3 badly damaged frigates.

Turian ground forces where now cut off from their supply lines and caught between the planet side units they had been fighting solidly for the last month and fresh, front-line forces that not only began re-enforcing their enemy but also re-establishing logistics and supply lines as well as the shared information stolen from Turian officers, onmihooks and stolen technologies.

4 days later on the 19th of February 2157 the combined Turian fleet arrived through the Shanxi-Theta relay, and despite efforts made by Xcom forces to force communications (now knowing the reasons for the conflict partially, if not in full) and force some kind of cease fire where met with cold silence from the Turians, who judging by the barbarity of the race on the planet, the sheer (and almost schizophrenic) differences in technology as well as the fact no less than three "variants" of humanity had been sighted in combat, the difference in ship designs, on top of their baffling size and weaponry had led them to the conclusion that the race of "Humanity" on the surface of the world was the associate or client race of another far superior power that simply did not care for Citadel laws.

As the Incorruptible made it's data transfer to the new fleet moving towards Shanxi colony, this information was sent in return via a "Pony Express" of waiting Turian Frigates who would jump via mass-relay, transmit the information to another waiting vessel and then transmit the information again to reduce communications time from days to hours.

As the third Orbital battle for Shanxi raged, the STG managed to pick a few pieces of intelligence by positioning their vessels at split second intervals to intercept the point-laser transmissions of the Turian fleets, and what they discovered both terrified and intrigued them.

Another spacefaring race that may or may not be made up of three member species, with access to the technologies to create handheld laser and plasma weapons as well as spacefaring craft that both outsized and outpaced Citadel equivalents – which the Turians had started an open conflict with and now the "Union" of species in question (The Salarian's not knowing the Irony of how close this classification would be to the truth, especially given their own government and structure) was retaliating, reclaiming the colony the Turians had (stupidly) occupied and where obviously moving into a war footing with.

Taking this information to the Salarian Dalatrasses was the next move, and in doing so left a terrifying prospect – should the leaders of the Salarian Union take this information to the Citadel council and risk damaging their relations with the Turian Hierarchy? And how would the Asari Republics react?

The combined (but temporary) choice of the Salarian Dalatrasses was to continue observations, attempt to place their own agents amongst the Turians ranks and attempt to gain first hand Intel of this enemy (as their plan was before this intelligence was gathered) and their technology, and _then_ put their findings forward to the Council, whilst leaving out any technologies gathered during their operations to ensure the Salarians would have some form of upper hand if the (eventual) decision of the Asari Republics was to attempt to contact said enemy and forge a cease fire.

If the decision had instead been made by the Dalatrasses to take their findings to the Citadel there and then, the chances are high the latter months of the war could have been avoided entirely.

The months of February, March and April where bloody slog on the behalf of both races, Pan-Human and Turian.

Whilst the Pan-Human-Union had regained their world, they still had a heavily entrenched Turian force making hit-and-run strikes across every continent, undermining efforts to retake the planet effectively.

In space, whilst the technological prowess of the XCOM and Pan-Human-Navy managed to drive back repeated strikes again and again they had little experience in actual space combat – every war fought against an alien species had been fought with boots-on-the-ground tactics, rarely even using vehicle support due to the nature of the ADVENT occupation or the Second Ethereal War and this showed itself very quickly as the Turians could make effective point-to-point Mass Effect transitions in system to strike at lone or damaged orbital vessels, or make an FTL jump from the outer system to the inner system and then drop into orbit to supply ground droops or deploy nuclear weapons both in orbit and in airbursts to further harm their enemy. Every few weeks ships from both sides would arrive and the fighting in orbit would intensify before either the XCOM and PHU forces would wipe out their enemy or the Turians would move off, using distraction tactics or hit-and-run strikes to achieve other goals.

By May 2157 both sides where mobilising for a massive interstellar war, for the Turians however this provided the tipping point the Salarian Dalatrasses need to finally bring their Intel to the Citadel Council. While they had no direct interrogations they had discerned enough to know that it was the Turians who had started the war with their actions regarding the "Light on the Horizon" and their enemy the "Pan-Human-Union" was in fact one main species and two variant species that had at some point in their history been in a major conflict with an alien species before coming into contact with the Turians themselves.

With the technologies at their disposal the Pan-Human-Union could become a very clear and dangerous threat to every race of the Citadel Council and with the few articles of technology recovered (including one of the many probes launched by the Light on the Horizon as visual evidence) the Salarian Union held an emergency session of the Citadel council and revealed their findings to their fellow races.

The Turians at first denied all the actions of the last months and even denied that the species the Turians had been in open conflict with even existed until retrieved data from the Pan-Human probe and combat footage from the Turian armies own soldiers proved otherwise.

Conceding that the Turians had foolishly considered the matter a "policing action" and that the new race had broken Citadel Law by activating relays without permission, then by using weapons of mass destruction on a garden world and then the bloody entrenched war on what now appeared to be a colony of another spacefaring power the Turian councillor argued that this new race would have to be broken down and defeated entirely as a Turian retreat would now lead to these new aliens simply moving through the active relays as part of the Turian Logistics chain back into Turian space and renewing the war in Turian territory which in turn would create even further issues with the council.

Thankfully clearer minds played their diplomatic arts from the behalf of the Asari and Salarian delegates and a plan was put forth for Turian vessels to temporarily retreat from the Shanxi system and a small diplomatic force of Asari and Salarian vessels only to await the Pan-Human forces that would inevitably follow through Relay 314.

Orders where made, but it was a difficult call for the Turian armed forces as any soldier left on the surface of the colony would be at the mercy of the planets occupiers until a ceasefire could be reached, if one could be reached at all.

As the wheels of bureaucracy turned, the fires of Shanxi colony continued to burn fuelled by the loss of live, Human, Skirmisher, Turian alike – and by the end of the 31st of May 2157 the Turian Hierarchy began plans to abandon the Shanxi system.

Throughout June 2157 Turian vessels no longer fired on Pan-Human vessels unless as a defence measure only, and Frigate class vessels would use short range FTL jumps to transition into low orbit and then descend into atmosphere to rescue stranded solders as and where they could, at a total of 67% evacuated over the month.

The Pan-Human forces sensing something had changed in the conflict used this change in pace and activity to further drive out or destroy Turian units on Shanxi's surface and to the best of their abilities hinder Turian craft – fearing this evacuation was the beginning of another, harder offensive.

On the 13th July 2157 the Turian Hierarchy had officially "Abandoned" the Shanxi System and those forces that remained either could not be, or refused to be extracted. The fleet responsible for their extraction then moved out and away from Relay 314 and the selected vessels of the Asari and Salarian delegation took up station-keeping positions in the relay 314 system and waited with baited breath for what vessels, and what result would come through the Shanxi-Theta relay.

6th August 2157 the Delegation got their answer – a combined XCOM and PHU fleet emerged in full force from the Shanxi-Theta relay, and where caught surprise by the two, corvette sized and unarmed vessels that immediately implored to make diplomatic contact to put an end to the conflict between the Turian Hierarchy and the Pan-Human-Union on behalf of a larger government known as the Citadel Council.

Between the 6th of August and the eventual (and official) end of the Shanxi conflict on the 16th of September 2157 the complete chain of events leading to the conflict had been confirmed both sides and the Pan-Human-Union was faced with the question regarding the sheer violence they displayed during the Turian occupation and the later battles on both sides.

The delegates of the Pan-Human-Union gave a concession to the Citadel Council and handed over the complete records of their history from the year 2015 onwards – revealing the truth behind a battered, bruised and almost decimated species.

The Citadel Council closed all sessions for an entire week simply to process the sheer depth of what they had been presented with, Visual recordings, Audio recordings, written testimonies, satellite data, any shred of "Humanity" that had survived their 26 year stretch under the boot of the psychotic and cruel alien coalition led by the "Elders" and the misery they had generously dispensed upon Humanity, their world and their species.

While the Asari could be considered the galaxies "greatest" diplomats, the Salarians the "greatest" scientists and covert operatives, the Turians the greatest "Soldiers" humanity it would seem was the greatest survivor – surviving at any and all costs against anyone or anything they considered a threat to their species.

It quickly became clear that massive concessions would have to have been made by the Turians if any hope of a lasting peace could be attained.

It was at this point however that the Pan-Human delegates requested to meet once more, with their own list of requests.

The Pan-Human delegation somehow had the knowledge (or foresight) of the options that would be given from the Turians and came to the table with their own set of requests.

 _\- That the War of Shanxi be officially recognised as a war and not a "Policing action" as the Turian delegation continued to imply, and that -_

 _\- The Turian race formally apologise to the Pan-Human-Union for said war_

After the Pan-Human-Union had spent the last week panning through the laws that the Citadel council had put in place, one specific law "the Treaty of Farixen" be abolished, as the Pan-Human-Union had intelligence regarding both their enemies from a century and a half ago but another, unknown threat that their former despots feared so desperately that they would willingly drive other species to extinction simply to survive them.

 _\- As a measure of defence the Citadel Council abandon the Citadel itself as the seat of government and house themselves elsewhere whilst also splitting the structure of the council into multiple smaller councils as preparation of the above threat._

The Pan-Human-Union backed these requests with an offer to divulge technologies both from their Prothean Beacon on Mars and of their own creation, including the use of in-ship flywheels to store static electrical charge and transfer it into trickle-down heat transfer systems that would allow generated heat to be used as electrical energy which could double, if not triple the FTL range of any ship retrofitted to use such technology and _quintuple_ the range of any ship purpose built to use it.

The Council's response was to simply demand the Prothean technologies be handed over as a mandate of Citadel law – and the Treaty of Farixen would not be abolished and that the Pan-Human-Union (in the eyes of the Turian councillor, Delegate and Primarch) where dangerous, barbaric primitives who had no place to dictate Council law, and that if they instead adhered to Council Law they might be lucky enough to be offered an embassy on the Citadel within 5 years and they should be glad to have even that offer made to them.

 **The Pan-Human Ambassador of the time, a Reginald Udina sat through this barrage and (as recorded and broadcast at the time) replied as thus-**

 _"This entire conflict has been because of a series of mistakes and foolhardy pride, it has cost blood and lives on both sides – we are asking that our point of view be recognised in regards to the War of Shanxi, or as you call it 'The Incident or Relay 314' and we have not even asked for any form of concession or payment for that. Instead we ask for recognition, and a change to laws that have so far lead to idiotic pride being treated as dogma – you think the forces of Pan-Humanity where bad enough?_

 _We've been faced with near extinction twice in our history of contact with alien races and we know, we have first hand knowledge and intelligence that there is something bigger, badder and downright fucking worse than we are out in the stars and your beloved seat of government is the FUCKING DOOR THEY WILL USE TO KILL US ALL WITH!"_

 ***(At this point Udina is seen gathering his breath)**

 _"These technologies will, against my better judgement but the judgement of my superiors be left here as a means to hopefully ensure your survival, Delegates and members of the Citadel Council – but we will not, nor will we ever adhere to the laws forbidding the activation of mass relays, and if you want us to scrap and dismantle every vessel we consider larger than a picket-destroyer in side then you will have to claw them out of our cold, dead, fucking, fingers."_

 ***(No reaction is heard from any members of the Citadel delegation)**

 _"So as you may have guessed my ambassadorial friends the Pan-Human-Union is going to accept your offers of ceasefire and peace, but we will not be joining your Citadel Council even as an Embassy but we will sit aside, much like your treatment of the Terminus Systems. We will be a separate, solid and sovereign state that would like to offer YOU an embassy aboard our own Government space station, the O'Neill cylinder Armstrong built by our own hands in the Arcturus system, it may not be as impressive as your station but I can assure you it isn't secretly gathering intelligence on your every move so as to strike and kill you all when you least expect it. Now if you must excuse me, I need to relay this to my superiors – as I said, the technologies listed in the tablet in front of you are yours to keep, and there are more on offer providing you aren't so stupid and pride stricken to have your heads up your fucking arses forever. Good. Day."_

From this day onwards, the Citadel Council is reported as being "shocked" by the reaction on behalf of the Pan-Human-Union and whilst no embassy is built on either side, they remain in a state of peaceful cold war.

* * *

 ** _/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/_**

 _Well fuck me sideways and call me Shirley that took far took long for me to figure everything out._

 _Yes, Zaeed in this retelling is a Skirmisher – Bald head, bug eyes the works. While I was writing this I kept thinking his name through and how to weave him into the story of Shanxi in my head when I realized just how "Skirmisher-esque" his name sounds, and his behaviours in the original trilogy. Top that with the fact his great-grandparents where likely turned to goo during the ADVENT occupation, and we have . . . Zaeed the Skirmisher._

 _Trying to make the Turians sound like a professional but slightly out-teched army was difficult, I didn't want to keep curb stomping them over and over again, so the Pan-Human forces had the tech, but where still green behind the ears when it came to the prospect of a protracted interstellar war._

 _And then there's the council – and would you guys believe for the number of fanficion stories out there that cover the evens of Shanxi, there is very little in the way of details from the Lore about who really fought in the campaign – who was the leader of the Turian ground forces? Space forces? Who was the Primarch (which has remained un-named) at the time? Salarian union Delegate for the council?_

 _And yes, this meeting was the first of many meetings between the Pan-Human-Union and the Council wherein Humanity or it's subspecies lay out exactly how fucking stupid the council is, because in the face of extinction, any other option is the preference, but the citadel has never had its culture destroyed, it's home world ravaged and ¾ of it's members turned into green goo to make alien psychic super gods._

 _The next chapter will be Eden Prime, and the story will begin in full from there._

 _So for those of you who have stuck around thus far – thanks to you all, and for those who are just joining us . . . down into the rabbit hole we go . . ._


	8. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 3

**..**

 **..**

 **..**

 **/-/ Time Unknown / Place Unknown /-/**  
 **/-/ Cathedral-Bridge of the Ethereal Temple Ship /-/**

* * *

It could have been before, it could have been after or even during – the time spent in this limbo had ripped apart the psyche of the being once known as Jane Shepard time and time again.

Against the useless void surrounding the temple ship she had fallen into despair, depression and madness – she had pulled herself back together again and wept against the futility of this . . . space outside of reality she had forced the ship into in an attempt to save Humanity.

In endless aeons she had produced happiness, charity, kindness and love that existed within the confines of her mind with people, imagined family and friends that never existed beyond the realms of her imagination in this space.

Long ago she had given up on attempting to answer the questions of why she didn't need to eat or sleep, why she had never died of dehydration or needed to simply urinate or excrete – whatever this place was it held everything inside it in a form of living stasis, where untold millennia could be felt passing in no time at all, where a second could last trillions of years. For a human mind with a set biology, a set mind-span, a limit to how much could be theoretically remembered in the neurons and chemical connections of the brain, she lived out lifetimes over and over again as other people, but always seemed to reset to the default state of Jane Shepard.

Which was likely why she never noticed the other three who eventually appeared within this space with her, or the fourth who appeared last and deliberately separated them from her, and her from them, when the being – the concept of Jane Shepard finally pulled itself back together, kicking and screaming into a useful amalgamation of personality traits that used to be the person she was, she would see it.

It was slightly taller than a person, with human hands and feet, pale skin and ice white hair that seemed to repel gravity from its ends – every single hair in an endless escape from the owners head, and when the head turned the hair followed in slow motion, almost as if it was constantly flowing through water.

Jane tried to concentrate on it's face, sometimes where would see blank, androgynous features, other times a glowing purple faceplate, and other times she would see the face of another . . .

No, that man, that leader was long dead. Another Imagined being in an eternal hell-scape between universes.

But just as she pieced, not purposefully – but carefully the remains of what could have been Jane Shepard so long ago, she remembered the greater threat and the pieces of the puzzle the Ethereal ones wanted so desperately to solve but couldn't, having driven themselves into an evolutionary dead end.

So when she returned to the bridge and the Ethereal device once more, after countless times from countless directions and motives and forced her will into the device itself it finally resolved – she could feel the three other presences and her mystery other, but could not see or touch them, something about this place and her being was an anchor to these almost wisp like memories of beings.

She however, was the one in control.

 _ _Jane Shepard went mad.__

 _ _Jane Shepard is mad.__

 _ _Jane Shepard iswaswillalwaysbe angry.__

 _ _But Jane Shepard always gets even.__

All the Shepard's together pushed her into renegade sanity, paragon madness. Without time as a constraint she existed for millennia in an attosecond, which was precisely when the door opened.

She never felt herself falter or be lifted back to the device by the androgynous other, or their hands on the back of hers as they returned to the device and forced the doorway to the world? Eden Prime.

The voice of the other started suggesting the words she needed directly into her mind, and with a small push of guidance the Other drew Janes power and forced a very small hole in reality between a Hyperwave Beacon and a Prothean Beacon on the world of Eden Prime.

Now, as the fields of Eden Prime faded into her view, she could hear the chattering of Geth drones, but her knowledge of what they where evaded her, she could see the clouds of smoke, but had no idea why the fields where burning. She could feel the heat even through her XCOM issue Psi-Armor and could hear the distant crack-whine sounds of pulse lasers, and in the sky . . .

. . . In the sky, obscured by clouds of acrid smoke and wreaths of blood red lightening was a shape that was impossibly tall, floating in the sky – a vast tentacled form of dark blue metal and foul intent that shook her to her very core, filling her with fear and dread.

The last thought that passed through her mind before she passed out, was the question as to why that thing floating in the sky would shake her to her very core.

* * *

The others however knew all to well.

The first uncurled herself from a kneeling position on the floor not far from Jane's unconscious body and looked across the sweep of the burning Pan-Human colony.

"So, We have been called once more to serve" A voice, a deep and resonant male voice that was not her own spoke aloud " _Sister_ "

She turned and the memories filled her mind, she was the Elders Chosen, last and youngest of three. Grown of their own being and power and infused with the essence of those of whom she would hunt.

The simple sense of being filled her mind before the words joined them.

She was the Assassin.

"Brother, It has been a long time" She replied as the form of her eldest brother, the one who took the name of Warlock emerged from seemingly thin air, shortly before the last of the trio did the same.

"Well, _this_ is new" the Hunter declared, apparently to no-one other than himself.

Together the trio turned to gaze upon the form in the distance, the dark blue hued cephalopod designed machine hovering with complete disregard for gravity, just over the horizon – launching blasts of fire at any small arms of munitions that attempted to fire at the near god-like starship.

"So, it's that time at last is it?" The Hunter declared as he dropped to a firing position, baring his teeth and shouldering his sniper rifle to get a view on the targets underneath the ves-The Reaper.

"We are no longer linked to the Elders brother, I cannot feel their grasp" The Assassin began as she rested her hand on the barrel of the rifle and pushed it down gently. The Hunter let out a small sigh and disappointment played briefly across hie features before being replaced with his standard, slightly psychotic grin.

"But we are Not. Alone" she finished and the three turned to the fourth figure stood over Jane Shepard's form; ignoring the war-zone unfolding around them they moved towards the being – they knew both what it was, what it had been and what it was eventually going to be.

"So the elders gamble didn't pay of-" The Hunter began to be swiftly silence by his older brother.

"Silence whelp, just because we cannot feel them it does not mean we are not a part of their designs" The Warlock finished his interjection.

"But you can feel it can't you?" The Assassin began "We are all, _mortal_. The Elders are gone . . . "

"Because we have been called, by this one" The Warlock stated as the three turned to the last, the infused AVATAR body that had pulled them into the space between spaces alongside themselves and Jane Shepard before their essences where lost for all eternity. So they had used the Temple Ships point outside time and space and used it as an anchor to preserve the three of them until they could be used in a time that would be more useful.

After all, what use is being stuck outside of time, space and reality without a few pick and mix perks along the way?

"Well I guess you follow and we lead?" The Hunter said aloud as the quartet dissipated in a localised vortex of psionic energies from which no trace of their being there could be detected. The Hyperwave beacon and Prothean beacon awaiting their proper activations, and the unconscious form of Jane Shepard awaiting her meeting with another Shepard, a few scant light-years away and a generation down the line.

* * *

 _ **/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

DUNDUN DUN! Yep, the Chosen have returned . . . and are being led . . by someone I will leave you all to figure out =P

I'm trying my hardest to explain the whole Temple Ship as a concept outside of the normal perceptions of time and space as we know it for it to be an endless, eternal void of just one room forever and back again – hopefully that comes across in my writing.

Many thanks to all those who have read the fanfic so far, favorited and followed – it is very much appreciated as this was a big jump for me to turn what had been 6 months of jotted down notes in the back of an A4 notepad on my way too and from work every day into some form of coherent narrative, so thank you all for your support so far.

Next up – the true Introduction of Commander John Sheppard to his great, great aunt – why the Omaha is called the Omaha and not the Normandy and a few other bits and pieces along the way.

Until then, Tarrah for now.


	9. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 4

_**..**_

 _ **..**_

 _ **..**_

 _ **/-/ 3rd March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Arcturus System /-/**_

 _ **/-/ Command Deck of Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/**_

* * *

Stood within the primary cockpit of the Omaha was always an odd sensation for John, first of all because this vessel could be considered his first true "Command" but secondly down to the fact that despite the star-scape that played forth across his vision, they where in fact in the centre of the ship and the view surrounding him was entirely holographic; chosen as the preference of the ship's main pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau.

In the distance to the ships starboard was the two other vessels of the "Survivalist" class, a combination of sleek XCOM issue Alien Alloys alongside Pan-Human design elements of sharp right angles and impact armours held on struts on several points of the ship, designed to take blasts and detonate the force away before being detonated away themselves. All three vessels had Conn pods extending slightly away from the starboard side just before the engines and their 800 meter lengths where dotted with a mix of point defence laser and plasma weapons, and jutting out from the underside of each vessel was a significantly sided hangar and cargo bay with kinetic barriers to hold oxygen in and the void beyond out – alongside Alien Alloy drop doors several meters thick. Although no one had ever tried the everlasting rumour of the Survivalist class was that it could easily land a Pan-Human Corvette or a citadel frigate vessel within it's gaping maw.

As John looked across the various sensors within the Omaha's bridge locked on to his retinas and by extension his line of sight and a series of target boxes appeared over the other two vessels of the trio, marking their IFF signatures for "Green" signifying friendlies and then aligning vessel names over the top – the PHU/XCV "Normandy" and "Utah" which alongside the "Omaha" made up the current trio of the extended 7 of the vessels named after the World War 2 Normandy landings. In the final stages of construction the remaining vessels "Gold", "Juno", "Point Du Hoc" and "Sword" where some either weeks away, or short months away from being finished and put through their own initial test runs.

Which is precisely where John and his crew came in. He himself was a PHU/XCOM operative who had undergone the rigorous years of training in both arms of the Pan-Human armed forces, Including the Cross-Species-Specialised-Combat-Training alongside Human, Skirmisher, Turian, Asari, Salarian and even Krogan combat doctrines and then Pan-Human-Armed forces own N-7 training before moving along to XCOM's own classified Officer Training School within the last few years.

Although the Pan-Human-Union and the Citadel council had effectively been in a state of Cold-War since the end of the Second Contact War both sides had made concessions and even put forward attempts to work together on several occasions, the CSSCT being one of them – where both sides, or selected nations therein would perform war games against either side in different environments and then cross-compare each others tactics and abilities.

For the Citadel Council having better prepared troops and foreknowledge of Pan-Human and XCOM tactics was a boon in case the two sides should ever come to bear arms towards each other again.

For the race and sub-races of Humanity is was a chance to drive home just how dedicated they where towards the goal of survival – and any chance to not only train the other races against the Reaper threat they had known was coming for a little over 150 years could not be missed.

After their original introduction the Pan-Human Government had left the designs for thermoelectric recollection batteries and static recollection flywheels to not only reclaim but actively generate power from the static charge created by Mass Effect Cores and vessels in FTL on the desk for the Citadel Council to use, despite the fact that they had left the Citadel races sitting at the negotiation table.

After the Turians flat out ignored the technologies and the Asari had scoffed at their usefulness the Salarians did what Salarians always do, took the designs apart and put them back together again simply to see if they could. Once several months of testing where undergone (a practical lifetime for some Salarian scientists given their usual projects that last week are considered a long term investment of proverbial manpower) the Salarians sent forth an Envoy with thanks to the Pan-Human diplomatic corps whilst at the same time approaching the Turians and Asari within Citadel session to show them the actual results of these devices and the fact that these had been both from the Pan-Human designs left at the table and the Salarian designs that had been engineered from those original plans.

From there Johns parent's generation had put forth individual treaties with each Citadel race, with varying results.

The Turians had a silent respect for the Pan-Human-Union not only because of the events of Relay 314, but the Unions fighting prowess and military might and approached the Union to organise a form of military training regimen for the two races, but had never had the concept of "War-games" before – and when the Union introduced the Turians to the "Innovative" concept of non-live fire combat between races they took the concept in earnest and forged what could have been a bond of animosity over the events of Shanxi into a quiet respect. After the first decade of this, the Pan-Human-Union offered the Turians the design specifications for Carriers that had been proofed on the Turians own Dreadnought specification vessels, allowing the Turians to perform massive operations in deep space whilst also cutting down on supply lines and logistical vessels. With these designs taken in earnest the Turian Hierarchy had begun constructing Carriers in equal measure to their Dreadnought class vessels and the concept moved through to the other vessels of the Citadel.

The Asari, unwilling to back down on their own methods of diplomacy kept forcing the issue of Citadel membership becoming mandatory for every race of the galaxy, to which the Pan-Human-Union insisted that the Citadel should first offer the fallen races of the galaxy aid, primarily the Quarians and Krogan whilst at the same time lifting the Volus to being a full member of said Council for forming the galactic economy based around the Citadel Credit, and while they where at it – giving the Drell a membership of the Citadel, and removing the Batarians for their blatant disregard for Citadel law. With the Asari refusing to back down and the other races finally voicing their opinions towards this using the Pan-Human stance to hide behind.

The Krogans could at least use aid to survive on their home-world even without the Genophage.

The Quarians broke Citadel Law 6 generations ago by their own time and could at least use the aid of worlds to use capable of matching their Dextrose-Protien needs.

The Drell had survived under the Hanar and would eventually need to move out and colonise more worlds when the time came for them to rise back into ascension.

The Elcor had member status but where forced to share their own embassy as a sovereign state with the Volus, the Hanar and the Batarians.

The Hanar had much like the Turians taken the Drell in as a protectorate race, and having saved another race from extinction put themselves onto a pedestal of respect within the Pan-Human stance. So why should the Hanar not also have Citadel Status within the station that in their very religion is the highest point they can achieve under their religious believe based upon the Protheans.

The last point was that of the Batarians, who retained membership despite actively preying on the other races under the guise of "cultural reasons" for their slavery. Pan-Humanity based their final point on this – if the Council could keep a race of scum and slavers within their ranks but deny another civilization based on laws and reasons that race was never aware of at the time then the Citadel could go forth and rot in their station that would in fact be their downfall.

Since that point onwards the other races formed their own agreements, the Quarians where allowed free travel within Pan-Human space alongside the use of shipyards and material sciences to upgrade their fleet and even build new vessels in exchange for the Quarian's expertise in ship building techniques and maintenance, and John knew that the first All-Quarian O'Neill cylinder was being constructed in the Arcturus System despite the cries against such an act within the Citadel.

The Krogan came forward to Pan-Humanity not asking for help, but seeing if the two could engage in their own War-games alongside the Pan-Human government behind the leader of Clan Urdnot, Wrex.

While these War-games took place, Wrex was using his own political acumen within the Krogan people using Pan-Humanity as an example of how far a species could rise in the face of sheer extinction.

Like Earth, Tuchanka was a death-world. Like Krogan, Humanity was nearly wiped out at the hands of a coalition of aliens but unlike the Krogan, Pan-Humanity pulled ahead and pulled together and where now determined to survive at all costs.

And like the Krogan, Humanity had a planet they where still trying to reclaim from the past.

So the diplomats of the Pan-Human-Union left the table and the most decorated Admirals and Generals of the Pan-Human forces entered with an emissary from XCOM Central Command within the Sol system and lastly the head of the Reaper faction on Earth. Knowing that Wrex's fellow Clan leaders would not submit to mere diplomacy as Krogan culture dictated actions, not words – Xcom and the Reaper faction would set up a base on Tuchanka whilst the Krogan would do the same on Earth – and both races would actively engage in trying to reclaim sites, resources, items of historical value and technologies with an "open hand system" in which either side could keep what they found, provided they shared with the other.

So a significant portion of Clan Urdnot took to Earth and faced against the billions of Chrysalids and the Lost which still remained and in exchange XCOM and members from the Reaper Cell involved would set up base on Tuchanka and actively clear out Krogan cities. Although casualties and deaths where taken on both sides, each side raised a massive boon of camaraderie for the other and cemented the very beginnings of Krogan actively choosing to undertake their Rite of Firsts, Rite of Union and Rite of Passage on Earth due to the sheer danger involved on the planet.

The Hanar and Volus where finally admitted to have stakes within the Citadel Council – and plans where put forth for both races to finally take seats within said council to raise the total from 3 member races to 5 – on the grounds that Pan-Humanity finally adhered to the rules. Pan-Humanity again declined on the basis of the Batarians and so the plans remain but the seats are untaken.

The Elcor gladly shared Combat VI systems with Pan-Humanity in exchange for the technologies behind MEC and SPARK systems which in turn helped the Elcor further survive combat within their chassis systems.

The Drell took part in a Cultural Exchange which led to Pan-Humanity learning of Kepral's Syndrome. Whilst Pan-Humanity and their sciences where not advanced enough to be able to reduce or reverse the effects of the Genophage on behalf of the Krogan, they could at least aid the Drell with this condition. Through the use of technologies left behind by the Ethereals within the Gene Therapy clinics, Pan-Human scientists developed a "vaccine" for the disease which would allow 85% of the species to be completely unaffected and would in turn be based down into their children and effectively wipe out Kepral's within one generation, but they could do little but ease the suffering of those whom already had the condition.

The Salarians eventually moved into a series of scientific treaties with Pan-Humanity, exchanging scientists and materials on both sides to develop Pan-Humanities own expertise with Mass Effect based systems whilst at the same allowing the Salarians access to civilian handheld laser weapons to allow them to finally created handheld lasers of their own. As result of this eventually lead to the "Tantalus" drive core which was a three way technological drive between Pan-Humanity, the Turians and the Salarians to include every races knowledge of the systems involved whilst integrating Ethereal Alien Alloys as well as Static Recollection and Thermoelectric recollection systems directly into the drive core.

The Asari maintained a cold distance due to Pan-Humanities insistence on sticking to actions and methods they considered not to be the norm, maintaining an embassy but little else whilst the Batarians raged in anger against the completely undisguised contempt Pan-Humanity had for their open use of slavery as well as ignoring the very laws that Pan-Humanity was being continuously told they should adhere to.

As result of this, John still bore the scars of too this day when a massive fleet of Batarian Slavers hit his home colony of Mindior and used every trick in their arsenal (being funded directly by the Batarian government) used decoy SOS messages to draw ships away from the defence fleet and then used FTL ramming attacks to decimate the vessels that remained before jumping their ships directly into atmosphere and butchering the civilian population before they could even arm themselves properly – and the Batarians used every method they could to both kidnap human slaves and steal human technology.

Since that event he still carried the scars of the Batarian Neural Whips across his back where he had been forced at gunpoint to watch his friends and family forced to kneel and be shot in the back of the head one by one for his fathers crime of raising a weapon against them. Even if that moment had been the point where his Psionic powers finally manifested and he managed to maul, shred and dismember every last Batarian he could find with the untrained power of his mind alone he still carried the unrestrained hatred of their species and the memory's he carried from them.

But that was then, and this is now.

He turned his eyes from the star-scape and returned to his position just behind Joker as the pilot moved between displays with a practised ease.

"The Arcturus Prime Relay is in range, initiating transmission sequence . . . . _aand_ we are connected. Calculating transit mass and destination." Joker started aloud as the ship started to speed up by orders of several thousand meters per second as the massive tuning fork structure of the Mass Effect relay began to spool up in advance of the coming trio of vessels.

"The Relay is hot, acquiring approach vector. All stations, secure for transit." He finished as he closed the last few holographic displays and watched as the Prograde marker on his HUD within the Omaha aligned with the system display from the Arcturus station, putting their orbit directly into the path of the coming relay.

"Board is green, approach run has begun. Hitting the Relay in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . " He continued and shortly finished as the Omaha took the lead of the three ships and lightening sparked from the Relay and onto the first of the vessels and the Omaha began speeding up considerably as the Mass-Free field took hold and the Omaha moved alongside the twin spokes of the Relay and shot forth at several times the speed of light to be followed seconds later by the Normandy and the Utah.

"Thrusters, Check. Navigation, Check. Recollection systems are active and engaged. All Systems green. Omaha drift is just under 1500k" Joker continued.

This was the point where the only non-member of the Pan-Human forces spoke up. Alongside John Sheppard was the council Spectre Nihlus Kryik, he was tall even for a Turian and was wearing what appeared to be wearing the standard issue Phantom Armour in black with vertical red stripes that had been modified by its wearer for additional magnetic hard-points for grenades and weapons.

"1500 is good, very good. Your Captain will be pleased" Nihlus said to Joker, which was when Shepard spoke up.

"Your right, I am pleased" John said aloud as he turned to Nihlus.

"Sorry Shepard, I was under the Impression Anderson was in command of this vessel?" Nihlus returned with an air of confusion.

"Captain Anderson is the PHU Attaché for this mission, much in the same way you are the council Attaché for this shake-down cruise. You are right, but shall we walk for a moment?" John put forth as the pair turned to talk down the central walkway from the cockpit and down the Gunnery command deck where recessed seats had their own displays for weapons and targeting systems.

"Nihlus, whilst we head to the briefing room – I do have an admission to make, I am the XCOM Attaché for this mission and I was under the impression before this crew even left that the Omaha would be under Anderson's command . . . unless a Winter Contingency was declared" John spoke in lowered tones as they passed the Chief Navigator Charles Pressly at his post of the central holo-pit just past the gunnery deck and into the elevator behind where they would then move down a floor to the briefing and operations rooms.

" _Winter contingency?_ " The Turians flanged voice spoke, both confused and curious "Wasn't the last time that was declared -"

"Yes, You're 'Incident at Relay 314' our Second Contact War" John finished the Turians sentence for him.

"Shepard, Call it the war – we both fought long enough and had enough dead to not call it anything else" The Turian spoke aloud. In that moment John felt the briefest psionic pulse of both _pride . . . and camaraderie?_ Pulsed from the Turians usually militarily well organised thought processes. Obviously he policed his thoughts very well in the presence of PHU or XCOM psychics and that was a momentary break in those barriers.

The Elevator doors opened and the pair both walked through to the Briefing room where Anderson stood waiting.

"Commander, Spectre – you'll have to excuse this momentary lapse but I have to handover command and move over from my command to yours" the Captain said aloud as he moved between the pair still in his Pan-Human-Naval captain Dress-Blues.

"This mission was originally meant to be a retrieval mission between the Pan-Human-Union and the Citadel Council, that all three of us already know. What I am about to show and tell you now does not leave this room." he continued as he moved to the holographic displays at the end of the briefing room as Shepard took a seat and Nihlus stood a short distance behind.

"What the council knew and the reason why Nihlus is here is a concession on our behalf to the Citadel Government, a construction team discovered this not days ago on the surface of Eden Prime. It's a beacon, and it appears to be Prothean." Anderson continued as images appeared on screen of the Beacon being unearthed. The ghostly green hue casting shadows of the light on the silvery metals used in it's construction.

"We where going to share this beacon with the Council as a matter of good faith, god knows we need it. But here Nihlus is where our Intel shared with you ends, and where Commander Shepard's begins." Anderson stood to one side of the display pedestal and motioned for John to rise from his seat and come across.

"The digging team was joined with a group of research students from the Eden Prime University who helped in the un-earthing of the site. Their equipment kept picking up resonant echoes of other materials and another active power source close to the beacon. Once the Prothean Beacon was unearthed and ready to be moved they extended the dig site and in doing so, found this." Anderson continued again as Shepard stood in silence, his XCOM level authorisation started the system display to start projecting a second object. Unlike the cool green glow of the Prothean device this one had a central spire surrounded by three arching sides and the remains of what used to be three smaller rings scattered about in pieces on what would have been the tiles of a millennia old smooth Prothean floor.

"Is that a-" Nihlus began.

"Yes." Shepard declared "An Ethereal Hyperwave Beacon, the second ever found by us. The first was during the assault of the first Alien base during the first Ethereal War."

"And proof that the Ethereals where not only active during the time of the Protheans, in direct contact with them – and hopefully enough proof to convince the Council they need to listen to us and increase their Military and Naval standing above and beyond what they currently have before it is too late for us all." Anderson interjected.

"And the Winter Contingency?" Nihlus asked to Anderson directly.

"Winter Contingency!?" Anderson nearly shouted in shock.

"This old friend is where I have to take over" Shepard placed his palm on the pedestal again as his Omni-hook and Psi-Amp connected and in turn authorised his rise in command.

"I received the Winder Contingency call moments before we hit the relay, so we sill have time to brief – but keep in mind not even I know what we are about to see" Shepard finished as the SOS call came through, unfiltered and uncensored on the display.

The footage was undeniably from a soldiers combat helmet as the target reticules could be seen above their field of vision – track the soldiers eye movements and marking IFF friendlies or non friendlies as they did so. A woman wearing PHU issue Carapace Mark IV armour in a local camouflage pattern was carrying a MAG rifle to her shoulder and firing in controlled three-shot bursts.

She saw something off-screen and turned to the soldier and pushed him from the shoulder and into the dirt yelling "GET DOWN!" as she did so before firing another 5 3-shot bursts to targets not seen by the soldier as she did so.

Then the soldier turned to his presumed squad leader as the leader raised the soldier to his feet and tapped his Omni-tool several times for an open broadcast signal and slapping the soldiers helmet – being the point where the soldiers helmet cam and squad leaders Omni-tool connected to begin transmission.

"We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties from unknown hostiles! As the last Squad Leader I am declaring Winter Contingency! I repeat! Winter Contingency has been declared! We need urgent assistance, they came out of nowh-"

The squad leader never had a chance to finish his sentence as a blue-shifted bolt of plasma connected with the side of his helmet, ignoring the kinetic barrier and burned through the alien alloys protecting his head before ripping out the other side and the unfortunate soul dropped to the floor dead.

The soldier now starting to panic, dropped his rifle and attempted to scoot backwards on his hands and feet away from the corpse as more blue-white plasma impacted his former leader and turned his vision to the sky as a massive glowering form of what looked like a hand of blue metal could be seen dropping through the clouds and the signal cut out to nothing.

"With Winter Contingency declared I'm afraid I have to take over Anderson." Shepard spoke as he offered his old friend a hand to shake, to formalise the handover.

"You have it son" Anderson replied taking his hand and shaking it. "Anything you need."

Shepard spoke aloud "Open Intercom" and the ship opened a full voice channel across the ship over every available speaker.

"We where already heaving to the world of Eden Prime but XCOM command has just issued a Winter Contingency so I am taking command of this vessel on the behalf of Captain Anderson. Joker – how long until we reach the colony?"

"We are about 17 minutes out Commander." Joker replied over the same channel.

"Get this ship to combat alert status – and inform the Normandy and Utah, any suggestions Anderson?"

"I recommend getting a ground team with yourself ready from the Omaha and having all ships prepare for skyranger launches and getting a defensive orbit around the planet." Anderson suggested, glad for his protege. Even if Anderson had now lost command his insight was still needed.

"You get that Joker" Shepard said aloud to the intercom once more.

"Yes Sirs, I'll transmit now." Joker said as he cut the intercom from his end and began transmitting the original SOS and his superiors suggestions.

"Nihlus, care to join us?" John said to his counterpart.

"Gladly – if you'll have me?" Nihlus asked in return.

"All hands on station" Shepard said as he turned his glance to the cold blue steel of the vessel that was frozen in the final frame of the transmission. "Looks like we're going to need every helping hand we can get".

* * *

 _ **/-/ A Moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

Aaaand there we go, the Omaha – I said there would be an explanation as the ship is one of three of the future 7 based off of the Normandy landings.

As for John Shepard himself – he's the standard preset John from the trailers, start of each game ect.

Fitting in space and history for the N7 Program, CSSCT and general history also helped with his backstory as well as why he would be Psionic rather then Biotic and his place within XCOM also.

Replies and Reviews will of course be appreciated, as I've been really surprised so far at the levels of acceptance I've seen since I've started writing this – thanks to you all who have done so far.

Tarrah for now.


	10. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 5

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 **/-/ 3rd March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Arcturus System /-/**

 **/-/ Primary Hangar of Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/**

* * *

Shepard watched through the front and rear entrances of the Omaha's hangar bay; each entrance would normally be sealed by alien-alloy drop doors several meters thick from the sheer difference of the air pressure, humidity and valuable oxygen needed to survive and the empty void beyond.

Today as the troops within prepared for combat surrounding the trio of Skyranger Mark VII transports he could see past the kinetic shields that protected his soldiers from the elements beyond in Eden Prime's atmosphere and down into the cloud layer as the 800 meter long ship coasted just above visual ranger of the burning fields and townships below. Every so often he could look past the very edge of the floor underneath his feet and see the bursts of gunfire below, sporadic and uncoordinated. Whoever had original assaulted the planet had left a token garrison behind to drive out any remaining forces of the original defenders and to harass any newcomers arriving to re-enforce them.

This was a bad sign; not even the Batarians would abandon their own unless they absolutely have to, and this force had willingly abandoned their own to prolong the fight without backup or retreat. Few forces John knew of from his extensive combat training operated this way, if any – and with the mission to recon and retrieve both beacons would get even messier beyond the Winter Contingency call if there where willing suicide soldiers to fight for every inch of dirt out of sheer bloody minded spite.

As he turned he was surprised to see Nihlus behind him, taking in the same view of the ground situation below them.

"I think I see what your seeing, not many ground forces willingly abandon their own. Not without good reason." Nihlus spoke as he attached a pistol to each of his magnetic weapon hard-locks along with several council issue grenades of Shock or Concussive variations.

"Shepard, I see you have your transports and your . . . men ready and waiting" Nihlus spoke as he turned to look at one of the three wedge shaped Skyranger transports as he turned to give glancing looks at Corporal Richard Jenkins – one of three MEC troopers attached to the PHU Omaha from one of the three Factions within the Pan-Human-Union government known as "The Reapers". The young man was full of life, practically exuberant for someone who was effectively a quadruple amputee.

The Council races, Shepard knew took a dislike to the use of both MEC and SPARK units and the only reason why they where not another massive point of contention between the two sides was purely down to the fact that SPARKS where not full AI based units, but a specialised VI unit enhanced with the connection to a local MEC trooper as a hub, courtesy of tech Shepard vaguely knew of from the XCOM arm of the Andromeda Initiative and their research bases out near Jupiter. Anyone serving within the Reapers could opt to undergo the procedures to become a MEC trooper but it was generally frowned upon to take the procedure without loosing at least half of the living limbs first (and due to the Reapers regular missions against Chrysalids and the Lost it would never be that uncommon).

Out of combat MEC troopers such as Jenkins would opt for the use of alien alloy prosthesis due to the fact their new limbs would be lightweight and sturdy enough to still do PT with their fellow soldiers. The other reason was that said limbs would probably out-live their users. The friendly jokes amongst the crew where always joined by Jenkins, especially when he would offer to "Lend a hand" to help someone by actually detaching his arm and handing it to them, or the one time he offered to "Cosplay as someone from the Addams Family" for ship parties and shore leave, most of the crew where imagining an Uncle Fester suit and instead where horrified when he detached his left arm with the Wi-Fi connection enabled, put a fake glove on it and had the hand walk into the mess hall in his wake.

Preparing for combat however Jenkins was a different man. Inside his MEC-7 Vindicator suit he was a 3 meter tall slab of death capable of running at 50mph while mounting shoulder based Plasma Grenade launchers, active launch Jump-jets and a pair of incredibly oversized Subcoiler SMG's that had been adapted to his MEC sized hands along with several thousand rounds of ammunition for each.

He moved between his SPARK units whilst adapting their own weapon load-outs, switching them out for either their MEC/SPARK sized Coil-based cannons, extended ammunition stores and a combinations of either Blaster Launchers or Enhanced Shredstorm cannons.

Shepard noticed how as he moved between them the SPARK units became slightly less jerky and machine precise and a little more fluid and almost organic in places – the SPARKS where connecting to the MEC processes and by extension Jenkin's own mind, "borrowing" the "CPU cycles" of the human brain to enhance their own code, giving them opportunities to passively learn in combat and limited intuition, never enough to become fully sentient but more than enough to ensure a SPARK unit within his command would utterly paste any VI based equivalent. Jenkins in turn would be able to "see" through his SPARK units eyes and "hear" through their external microphone arrays. The primary reason for his MEC/SPARK unit wasn't purely down to the fact they where all mechanical, but logistical – his MEC if damaged could seal his torso and head within an extra shielded cocoon and launch it away from the MEC chassis whilst his SPARK units could be replaced on a 1-for-1 basis by fresh models built from the Omaha's own Omni-gel reserves and internal fabricators.

Shepard watched as the final holographic displays started to appear in front of Jenkins vision, some static and others following the direction of his eyes before he finished his own preparations and the armoured hood unfolded from behind Jenkins neck and sealed around the sides and front of the armoured collar – Jenkins was now sealed within his suit and covered by several inches of alien alloy plates and kinetic fields, seeing the world as a 3d holographic display projected in front of his face for the remainder of the mission. Seeing Shepard's interest Jenkins gave a short MEC height salute followed by a thumbs-up with a fist the size of a 20 litre jerry can.

Shepard returned the salute as Jenkins pounded his way into the Skyranger's rear hatch – the other reason for the MEC/SPARK unit operating separately was due to their sheer weight at almost 2 metric tons each the combined unit took as much size and space as a light tank and needed their own insertion equipment and extraction gear in case everything went south, so the lone trooper was a one-man-army with 7 equally dangerous drones that would be dropped like bombs directly through the chute system of their specialised skyranger in a high speed low altitude insertion directly outside the most heavily combatted fields of Eden Prime and moving in from the south towards the Primary site. Shepard didn't doubt it would be an easy mission but considering the Corporal had lost limbs fighting against Chrysalids he didn't doubt the younger man's ability to survive and watched as the jutted wedge of the Skyranger transport lifted from the hangar bay floor with its Ethereal-tech-based Anti-gravity thrusters without as much as a whisper and glided out of the bay and away to the port side of the ship before it activated its main engines and shot away from view.

Nihlus returned his gaze to John and asked "I take it you are going straight to the source of the entrenchment, and if my guess is right our beacons are there . . . mind if I tag along during the insertion? I'm going to drop early and see if I can scout out what's going on down there."

A brief surface level mind-scan from John's behalf confirmed this was the case, but also confirmed Nihlus's suspicion that John wasn't entirely trustful of the Council spectres plan, most psychics could get away with feeling the emotional chaff coming off of others, words and phrases – bursts of uncontrolled emotions are common, often forming together a layer of noise most Psionics learned to filter out in their childhood years because otherwise they would go quite undoubtedly insane.

To actually use the Gift as the Ethereals had called it on others, was an active use of their skills – to push their intention and will into as the very least an intrusive act on others or the space around them. It left an unmistakable footprint in the minds of others with even the most casual of scans, and Nihlus had indeed felt the Commander's scan, and was either telling the truth or was hiding his true goal under so many layers of emotional armour that it could not be found without actively tearing the Turians mind apart to get to it.

"Commander, I get it – we have pride and respect for each other at least even if as nations and councils we don't. I get it." Nihlus sighed "But I'm here for the mission, not to steal technological secrets from each other whilst a world beneath us burns. So with your permission?"

Shepard stood back for a moment and then apologised "Yes, of course. I'm sorry. You have my permission to scout ahead, god knows we'll need the Intel."

With that discussion over Nihlus turned to the Skyranger and stood in the entrance with his hand holding to the rail above as the PHU marines, a mixture of Human and Skirmisher troops with varying items and weapons boarded around and behind Nihlus and Shepard, and minutes later the second Skyranger with it's team lead by Kaidan Alenko took off in it's own whisper silent aerial ballet before being joined by Shepard's own Skyranger a minute behind them.

Minutes later, before they had even reached the ground things had gotten more complicated – the Skyranger closed for a moment and Nihlus jumped effortlessly from the rear of the ship and dissipated from sight, no doubt safe from some form of Council tech Jump-jets within his armour but Joker was now on a channel feeding Intel directly to John via his TEAMCOM system and omni-tool.

"I'm telling you commander the moment we appeared from the relay we say what looked like a ship leaving, a massive one with an unknown silhouette" Joker said as John overlooked the partial scan of what looked like a massively out-proportioned sea creature turned into a 2 kilometre battleship or dreadnought scaled behemoth "We also caught two massive psionic spikes the moment we entered atmosphere, one centred on the dig site and the other looked like someone was psionically teleporting along the planets surface until they reached the Eden Prime central star-port and this is when things get fucky."

"Explain 'fucky' Joker" Shepard explained, slightly exacerbated by the Pilots less than apt description of what he had seen.

"Well it looks like whoever it was boarded a short range shuttle while we where taking orbit" Joker carried on, a series of images showed the passing of three figures surrounding a forth with fuzzy details as they boarded an inter-system shuttle, a variant of the Council "Kodiak" design that couldn't even achieve FTL travel – and after the four together boarded it the craft disappeared in a globe of purple energies.

"It then re-appeared here, just off the bow of the Utah" Joker changed the view to that of the Normandy's external sensors following her sister ship the Utah before the shuttle disappeared again, and the image was replaced with a total system view marking Eden Prime, it's star and several other small worlds and asteroids of note as the purple blip continued to move away from the world – it's jumping pattern doubling in distance each time until it reached the Eden Prime-Beta relay and somehow achieved Mass Relay Transit out of the system.

"I take it the Normandy and Utah already have these files?" Shepard replied in turn.

"Yes sir"

"Good, Joker I want you to send this across to XCOM command with my routine code. I don't know what we are looking at here with everything else going on but I am sure someone else will be able to piece this together" Shepard finished.

"There is one more thing" Joker added as he finished the task "There was another psionic marker at the dig site – and from our own sensors and cameras we picked up this."

The image, far more stable this time caught several frames of a woman in burnt, tattered armour lying on the floor between the two relays unconscious, before she was approached by several more figures who appeared to have hunched backs and some form of high powered torch on their helmet armour being followed by what looked like a group of human sized _snakes_.

The woman with red hair and burned armour was awoken – and tore the whole group apart in a series of psionic bolts, in total a firefight that only lasted seconds before she had passed out once more.

What shook John to his core was the image before the firefight – he zoomed and enhanced the image as best he could.

In his mind he pieced together what he was seeing, snake like creatures with expanded "hoods" around their heads, two arms carrying what appeared to be the same blue-shifted plasma weapons as their allies but that 3 to 4 meter long tail on each of them was the tell tail sign.

Creatures not seen from, and considered extinct from the events of the Second Ethereal War.

Vipers.

Once known as Thin Men their species was considered the most malleable of all the races encountered by the Ethereals but also the most useless for such as task, and so they where used at first as infiltrators and then as coldly intelligent cannon fodder – whoever assaulted this world somehow had Vipers amongst their ranks which meant either a Third Ethereal War on the horizon or their much alluded greater threat. Either option filled John's mind with a moment of dread.

"Joker, send this along to XCOM Command also, with the code-names ADDER and REBIRTH. Then get the Omaha, Normandy and Utah on full combat alert – every weapon hot and loaded and if we are lucky, we won't have an orbital battle before we get a response."

"Done" Joker replied, his voice cold, distant and professional.

Shepard cut the connection on his end as he then motioned to open another channel with Alenko and Jenkins and passed the Intel through to their Omni-tool with a slightly revised set of landing coordinates.

Moments later the first of the three Skyranger's "touched" down as Jenkins and his SPARK unit where launched through the Skyranger's launch tubes for a direct insertion and then continued past to provide fire support whilst Alenko's Skyranger Flight Lieutenant Martin "Brains" Theakston dropped their team on the outskirts of Eden Primes arcology towers to make their way in to the primary site from the East whilst attempting to find and rescue any civilians as they went.

Finally, Johns own skyranger pilot Keuin "Hard Time" Metov was pushing the craft into a hard turn and dive as the rear loading door opened and the team dove out, making their ways towards cover whilst scanning the horizon with their weapons shouldered and searching for targets.

Instantly Johns senses where bombarded by the smell of burning fields and flesh – the air itself felt heavy and tinged with the iron of freshly spilled blood and in the distance he could hear gunfire and the occasional scream of either pain or death from beyond his line of sight.

The scene became real as he dove for cover and sighted the horizon for targets and the lower edge of his vision was filled with the HUD displays holographically projected onto his irises as he was the map of the original colony appear followed by the markers of the individual members of each team.

"This is Jenkins, Approaching from South – relative vector 187 degrees from Target marker north. I have movement ahead." As he spoke various sub cameras appeared along Shepard's and Alenko's HUDs as squad leaders – watching as the MEC trooper and his SPARK units moved ahead in a loose crescent shape, stealthy but fast with their points moving into flank positions as the camera feeds ignited into violence as the SPARK units where fired upon by unknown Mechanical units roughly the size and proportions of a tall Turian . . . or possibly Quarian, with low hunched necks that linked their foreheads into one solid mass that extended from the torso and ended in one single glowing eye on each head. Locking into the image Shepard's mind recognised the silhouette of the enemy soldiers but the name evaded him until he heard their mechanical chittering coming down from the SPARK unit's transmissions.

Geth.

Whoever this enemy was, they fielded Vipers that had not been seen in 150 years and Synthetics not seen in over 300 – and Shepard watched as the SPARK feeds suddenly cut off and Jenkins voice shouted down the comm lines.

"We're intact but my SPARK units have had to perform a partial shut-down, these robot bastards tried to hack my feed into the SPARKS and use them against me" Jenkins continued "COME AND GET ME YOU LIGHTBULB FUCKHEADS!" he yelled aloud and the 3-round bursts of each Subcoiler could be heard.

"Jenkins and squad 3 here – we're here and no casualties taken. Taking the fight to them" and Jenkins closed the channel at his end.

Somewhere towards the south John could hear the chattering of Jenkins Subcoiler and the detonations of Plasma Grenades and Blaster Launchers.

Swiftly John gave out a series of orders with hand gestures for his squad – to stick together in their five units of three soldiers each and move together, engage as necessary but otherwise move fast and stealthily towards the enemy.

It didn't take long before John encountered the Geth for himself, as the squad moved past a slow moving stream flowing gently across his right hand side and through an apply grove leading into another series of conjoined habitat units that was surrounded by the corpses of their former inhabitants.

The Geth where being led by a Viper, who was directing the sentient machines to take the fallen corpses and place them upon strange round objects with three legs. Once a fresh corpse was placed atop these objects – a spike would erupt from a hidden mechanism within and impale the corpse high into the air like some form of horrific psychological warfare.

The viper however, on closer inspection was nothing like the ones he had seen in his induction videos from XCOM years ago. The normally yellow/brown skin was coloured in a deep Gray and blue with faint blue lights underneath the skin, it's normal armour was nowhere to be seen and the chest which normally would be disturbingly close to that of a real woman's breasts where deflated and sagged – with tendrils filled with blue luminous fluids seem beneath the skin of each deformed mass.

One arm looked to be replaced entirely with some form of plasma weapon fused from the elbow down into the creature with a series of dark blue metal tubes and veins and the other, had wickedly long blades fused into the end of each finger.

In those fingers it held a human arm, completely detached from its long dead former owner, and the viper opened and distended its mouth to hideously long proportions, far further than any Viper on record could do so, and in a sickening display forced the entire limb down it's throat from the stump first – and Shepard watched the fingers disappear last with the glow of sickening blue light from within the Vipers gullet as it swallowed the limb down in jerking motions.

Finally satisfied he had enough footage, Shepard toggled his Coil rifle into full auto and tapped his throat-mic three times whilst lying prone mere metres away from the enemy, and knowing the rest of his squad was following behind him, he prepared to muster his Psionic power and in a split second he both pulled the trigger of his Coil rifle and unleashed a Psionic vortex towards the opposite end of the enemy squad.

The Viper dropped under a barrage of combined Coil-gun fire, rather than the orange yellow blood that Vipers had been known to bleed, this creature instead slowly oozed a thick black slime that seemed almost metallic in nature.

The Geth where also torn apart by a combination of both the Vortex forcing them out of cover, or outright annihilating any units not quick enough to escape the radius of the blast and the Alpha-Strike on behalf of Shepard's team gave them time enough to police the bodies with a shot into the head of each one before moving on through to the next orchard patch on the far side of the habitat structures.

As they grew closer to the Beacon site however it became more and more apparent the barbarity of the forces who had invaded the Pan-Human colony and in their hall-mark style how hard the Pan-Human forces had fought in return, devastating their invaders. It also became more and more apparent that at the very least one person was keeping up the defense.

* * *

Nihlus Kryik was also keeping up his advance into the colony. Opting for further stealth rather than direct combat he had snuck between Geth patrols and their accompanying cyborg snake creatures he had made it deep into the outlying township beside the beacon site which was when he ran into a face he would never expected to have seen in a place like this.

Stood some distance away from a group of Geth drones that seemed not to notice him was a Turian in off-white armour with a strange cybernetic arm. The figure, his former mentor seemed to be swaying from side to side and whispering to himself as Nihlus stood forward and placed a series of precise shots in the head of each Geth drone and the machines dropped as they attempted to draw fire on Nihlus. Within seconds it was over but the fellow Turian seemed not to notice his presence until Nihlus placed his hand upon his shoulder.

"Saren?" Nihlus questioned as he pulled Saren around to face him. Only then did Saren's eyes seem to focus on the face of his former apprentice as he continued muttering.

"Nihlus, Turian, Council Spectre designation . . . threat to mission minimal" Saren uttered as the light within his eyes seemed to be moving in from a great distance, Nihlus looked into his tutors face confused – he had seen Saren in many states of thought or being before, but never once classed him as the kind of Turian who could suffer from PTSD.

"Saren, it's me. The Geth are here and the situation is bad. I don't know what you mean by mission but you'll need to come with me if you want to survive this. Nihlus said trying to reassure the other as he turned for a moment to scan for targets.

"Mission. Yes. Survive? No." Saren continued as his voice seemed to strengthen with renewed vigour.

"Don't worry, I've got this under control" Saren motioned mechanically towards the pistol on his hip and disarmed the safety and moved to point the barrel directly at the back of Nihlus's head.

Nihlus moved but too slowly, he could almost feel what was happening – tell that he was about to die.

And as Saren's finger squeezed the trigger, it was at this moment he saw the PHU marine running down the hill to his left screaming "GET DOWN!" whilst firing three shot bursts from her plasma rifle whilst another human in scorched black armour and red hair was screaming maniacally and preparing to fire off a Psionic Null Lance from each hand, without a Psi-Amp.

The first plasma shots provided a distraction and Nihlus moved instinctively away from the pistol barrel, but the weapon still went off and took a sizeable chunk of his facial plates with it.

Saren seemed to hiss animalistically as he bolted away from the Null Lances being launched from the second woman as she prepared Lance after Lance without needing to "cool off" like most human psionics did so – and every other lance was followed with psychotic archaic swearing as Saren turned and dropped to all fours an bolted past and into cover as Nihlus dropped to the floor in shock.

The first woman with the plasma rifle dropped to his side and started to produce a medigel reserve and apply it to the wound on his face from her omni-tool while the second stood over them like some kind of demonically possessed mother-figure.

"Names Ashley Williams, PHU marine" The one applying the medigel said as she continued the procedure.

"Nihlus Kryik, Council spectre" Nihlus spoke aloud as he turned to look at the other, but Ashley spoke for her

"Don't know who she is – I found her not far from the dig site we where supposed to be protecting, crushing Geth and Vipers apart with her mind whilst screaming the word Shepard over and over again." She spoke, moving in closer to finish applying the medigel to his face "Don't know what the hell that means but she's one mean hell of a Psionic and I'd be dead without her by now."

"SAREN NO BOOM PLACE YOU FUCK!" The redhead in the burned armour screamed as she ran in the direction of the other council spectre and left the other two behind, enhancing her running speed with infused psionic energies.

"SHEPARD!" she screamed as she vaulted over the low level cover that had once been buildings and almost out of their field of view.

"And if she does that, she kills something you normally want dead" Ashley went on as she shouldered her rifle and moved to raise Nihlus to his feet.

"Well, let's not let her get too far ahead of herself" Nihlus said as he opened a comm channel to the only Shepard he did know.

"Shepard, I've just been given a parting gift from a hostile council spectre on site and heading towards the star-port. Suggest all three teams converge. Also found survivors from the local garrison and one local . . . survivor . . . who seems to know your name, I'll cover more in the debrief but right now she seems to think the Geth and their allies are about to blow up what remains of the colony" He briefed as he started into a slow run behind Ashley and his other survivor.

* * *

Jenkins and his SPARK unit had learned the hard way about what would be waiting between his landing and the central colony, he had fought through waves of Geth and cyborg Vipers and captured active footage of the spikes that the two races had been putting human corpses on lowering down and the dead reanimating into horrifying cyborg corpses that then lashed out at anything they could strike at in ways that felt far too much like the Lost for his liking. Between the twin Subcoilers and the varying levels of high explosives his unit had levelled a path leading north from his landing zone that was his very own private path of destruction.

Which was when a Geth drop-ship roared overhead and deposited even more Geth in his way before moving down to collect a Turian in white armour. Frustrated at his lack of any real progress he aligned the target sensors on his SPARK units and slaved them to his own sensors as he motioned a path of destruction using the SPARK units shredstorm cannons. A second later the combined units unleashed their wave of death against the Geth vessel which would normally be a death sentence for smaller vessels but instead provided a display of ineptitude as the vessel remained unscathed and intact behind it's barriers.

Which was when something he never expected came running and screaming into his field of view, quite literally as a woman with red hair and burnt black armour came running at full pelt over the edge of a low lying building and slammed onto the hull of the Geth ship using her psionic abilities to enhance her abilities to punch holes in whatever metal the Synthetic vessel was made of.

"Well that's just fine and fucking dandy and totally unfair that some mad woman can break the ship and I-" Jenkins continued as he armed the Plasma grenade launchers.

"-Fucking-"

He set all their fuses to proximity blast on detonation.

"-Can't!"

All 7 SPARK's and his own MEC launched their Plasma Grenades in salvo fire mode and impacted on the hull, creating some dramatic burn-marks but doing little to actually damage the vessel.

It turned and fired it's hull mounted mass accelerator cannons at the group of MEC and SPARKS, dropping three of the SPARK units and damaging Jenkins own MEC suit to the point where the MECs own safety protocols kicked in and force ejected Jenkins within his own armoured cocoon and fired it upwards into the air away from the range of fire saving Jenkins life in the process.

"BAD ROBOT NO ZOOM FLY!" the half-mad redhead screamed as she attempted to force more of her sheer hatred and capacity for forced will upon the universe into each hammer-blow, until the Geth ship started to turn and the utterly deranged woman lost her grip and started to fall from the side.

Somehow managing to arrest the momentum of her own fall the three squads converged on her landing point to find her sat, covered in dirt, dust, muck and blood cross-legged and somehow serene.

As John Shepard approached the other he could sense waves of laughter and hatred rolling off of the mysterious woman.

" _Hehehe . . . found me another Shepard . . . no I'm the Shepard. Am I the first? Are you the first? Oh Who the fuck even gives a shit?_ " she continued muttering to herself in a half giggling state whilst a smile of pure innocence crawled across her face in stark contrast to the imperfections of ruin that had been pained upon it.

"I'm Commander John Shepard, I'm with Xcom. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Can you tell me your name?" John began as he dropped to one knee in front of her and started to produce medigel from his Omni-hooks reserves in case he needed to perform any first aid.

" _Master Sergeant Jane Shepard XCOM_ _ _X-12031986. By the way. Colony go boom now__ _."_ she half-laughed out of her addled remains of a mind as she raised her hands in a clapping motion and a psionic barrier raised around the three squads within it's radius and the charges Saren had his Geth and Viper underlings plant much earlier in the assault detonated, wiping the central colony of Eden Prime off the face of the planet in a 10 Megaton blast.

* * *

 _ **/-/ A Moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

I never thought I'd be doing as much as I have in one day, especially since chapter 9 was 12 pages long and chapter 10 is 14 (not including this update section) but the primary intro of Jane to John – yes, for now she really _ **-is-** _that mad considering she was trapped for what may or may not have been an experience of thousands of lifetimes condensed into the singular point of not-time where she dropped in and dropped out of reality again.

Nihlus isn't dead but is now sufficiently "Garrus'd" in the face.

Jenkins is alive, but started the story as a MEC trooper – and with his SPARK underlings he'll be around for much longer. For Alenko and Ashley they will be playing a greater role in the next chapter as everyone pieces this clusterfuck together and the events that came before it, as well as the events that will happen after it.

Yes, Vipers are back - how in the hell did they end up amongst Sarens forces alongside the Geth - especially as Husks? Many questions to be answered another time.

Replies and Reviews will of course be appreciated, as I've been really surprised so far at the levels of acceptance I've seen since I've started writing this – thanks to you all who have done so far.

Tarrah for now.


	11. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 6

**..**

 **..**

 **..**

 **/-/ 3rd March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Arcturus System /-/**

 **/-/ Quarters, Commander John Shepard of Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/**

* * *

It had been mere hours since the end of the operation on Eden Prime's surface and the crews of the Omaha, Normandy and Utah where still elbow deep in recovery and rescue operations across the butchered fields of the once green world. Casualty reports where still coming but the Geth had apparently used the operation as an exercise in mass murder as they systematically spread from the central landing zone and wiped out almost every unprotected village, township and city they could find – while their apparent super-dreadnought had settled over the central city and spaceport and decimated entire units.

"Shepard, the spokesman is ready for you, they've finished chewing out Anderson" Joker said over a private intercom channel.

"XCOM Spokesman? I thought all XCOM presence on Eden Prime was wiped out, we recovered the gun camera footage" John replied tiredly.

"No commander, not Eden Prime – _the spokesman_. Central command." Joker replied and a shiver shot down John's spine – a meagre two times since mankind had reached the stars had XCOM Central gotten involved in any PHU business, even the loss of a colony would have been marked as a high priority but Central only got involved in end-of-the-world type scenarios.

The first time had been the discovery of the Beacon on Mars.

The second had been the Second Contact War.

Now, they wanted to talk to him. Personally.

He pushed himself to his feet, glad for the cocktail of painkillers and medications which had allowed him to stay on his feet since the end of the mission.

Brushing down his uniform and policing his Gauss pistol to the magnetic hard-point on his hip he arose and left his quarters, his omni-tool instructing him to proceed directly to the briefing room, passing crew members as they rushed to their various stations of the Omaha giving curt nods as they went.

Finally, he reached the doorway to the briefing room – and taking a final breath to prepare himself he entered.

The Holographic display he had stood at during the events that lead to this point projected a single point of light a few short inches above the podium. John sighed and placed his hand within the point – hidden sensors confirming his identity as the bull blue spot grew into the insignia of the XCOM project; the blue shield that contained a generalised representation of the Earth and the three stars surrounding it for XCOM land, air and space assets.

A quiet moment descended across the room and John could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and he became suddenly aware of the sound of his breathing as all ambient noise faded away; electronic countermeasures slipping into place to allow absolute secrecy.

On the holographic display an image faded into being – the silhouette of a bald man in front of the camera but his features obscured by the twin lights behind him – John could make out the fingers intertwined together into a steeple underneath the spokesman's chin.

The Spokesman separated his hands and placed them open-palm on the desk surface and finally spoke in a deep, gravely tone.

" _ **Hello. Commander."**_

* * *

 **/-/ Hours earlier /-/  
/-/ Eden Prime /-/**

The inferno raged around the three squads as the psionic barrier that had lifted from seemingly nowhere and was being sustained by the unknown red-head that was giggling into her lap whilst being attended by Commander Shepard.

Or rather, was being attended too – he had begun by attempting to administer Medigel to the woman, but several of his own team had motioned to stop him due to the fact that somehow, despite the impossible this half-crazed woman had attempted to down a Geth Frigate by punching it out of the sky.

As he moved back, her hand had shot forth and grabbed his wrist in a vice-like death grip and her eyes had ignited into a deep purple haze that had burned from within and Shepard had gone rigid – as the leader of the second squad had moved to help it became painfully obvious that neither could be moved by any power until she chose to release him, the both being held in a stasis field.

"Omaha, this is Alenko – can you read us?" Alenko spoke into his Omnitool as it struggled to get a secure line.

"Barely sir – what's happening down there, all we are seeing is a fireball from orbit." Joker replied with concern in his voice.

"We're alive but we need extraction, we have wounded and survivors; have Doctor Chakwas and her team on standby. Something has . . . happened to the Commander."

* * *

 ** **/-/ Time Unknown / Place Unknown /-/**** **  
** ** **/-/ Cathedral-Bridge of the Ethereal Temple Ship /-/****

John Shepard turned and raised his Coilgun scanning for targets. Wherever the hell he was, he felt that this place was a . . . violation of normal time and space, his body was in one place but his mind was definitely somewhere else.

So he turned to his training, find his weapon, find something to kill; and then kill it.

"I'm afraid that won't do much good here, this place isn't real . . . and we are only borrowing it for a while" A female voice behind him replied with a moment of mirth in her voice.

He turned to face her, the same bloodied and dirtied redhead from before, not laughing maniacally, not muttering inconsolably; instead she stood behind him, standing tall and resolute with what seemed to be a fire lit within her very being.

"Although I must admit I've spent too long in this shithole. Let's pick somewhere else" and she waved her hand at her hip and the Temple-Bridge dissipated and another backdrop appeared.

 **/-/ Time Unknown / Place Unknown /-/**  
 **/-/ Gollop Chamber /-/**

"That's a little better" She said aloud as she moved over to the Gollop device – the repurposed piece of Ethereal tech that had raised her abilities to being above all others.

"Where the hell are we?" John finally questioned her.

"Well what we are seeing is the Gollop Chamber, a few hours before Operation Avenger. Where we are is in my head . . . with a few added extras I suppose" Jane replied.

"It's hard to believe it's been this long . . . " She continued as she ran her fingers over the edge-lip of the Gollop devices podium.

"Who the hell are you then? And Why are we in your head?" John continued to question, following her movements with his rifle.

"I told you outside,

 _Master Sergeant Jane Shepard XCOM_ _ _X-12031986.__ Although in here I can explain a little better. I am Jane Shepard, I was born on the 12th of March 1986 and as far as history knows I died on the 1st of July 2019" She said as she moved around the device. "I think you're my little brothers great, great, great grand-kid – he must have been about 10 at the time I died. In all honesty I'm surprised he even survived the occupation, let alone the Second War."

"If you 'died' in 2019 how the hell do you know about the occupation or the second war?" John replied.

"Hrm, headstrong, brave, good leadership qualities but not too bright though" Jane said as she approached John and gave him a slightly playful boop on the forehead.

"I'm reading your mind" she finished.

"Oookay . . . so what is all this for then?" John said, slightly doubtful as he tried to move the conversation towards something slightly more productive.

"I'm trying to pass along Intel, and a message – one you won't be able to get out of me outside of this place" Jane put forward as she finally sat in the lip of the Gollop device, making it seem like a far too-spacious bucket seat.

"When the temple-ship was destroyed. It wasn't – it was however going to royally fuck up everything in future far far worse than the Ethereals had wanted to, it was a fail safe to ensure that if I killed their leadership within the Ethereals they could bend me to their will, by forcing me to obey or risk destroying the planet. Instead of choosing to obey them and their fucked up hive-mind I took the third option, I wasn't going to let everything from the last 20 hours of non-stop fighting and 4 years of war turn me and my friends and family into slaves and I sure as hell wasn't going to let the alien bastards destroy the fucking planet. So somehow I managed to find the third option and forced the fucking ship into it's own pocket universe where it has been until I finally, somehow forced that pocket universe to chew itself apart and spit me out at the only available point at the time, between the active Prothean and Ethereal beacons."

Jane took a slow, tired breath before she continued.

"The problem is, that place I made . . . it was fucked from the start, I had no idea what I was doing or even how I was doing it – I made a space but no laws or reality to go with it, I grew old in that place without ageing, forgot who I was and re-learned time and time again. I went beyond the point of any human ever could before me and went so mad I forgot what madness and sanity even where."

She rose to her feet and moved towards John.

"The only reason I can talk and behave coherently here is because I'm borrowing your head to do it. So here's the message"

Jane violently pushed her hands and met, fingertips to skin on johns forehead and a flurry of images shot forth into his mind.

 ** _BLOOD. PAIN. DEATH. REDEEM. .DEATH._**

 ** _MACHINE MACHINE MACHINE._**

 ** _PAIN_**

 _PROTHEAN_

 **REAPER**

 ** _DEVOUR_** ** _WITHOUT END_**

 _COLLECTOR_

 ** _TAKERS_**

 ** _ASCENSION_**

 ** _HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE_**

 ** _FLESH._**

 ** _MACHINE._**

 ** _DON'TTAKETHEM_**

 ** _. . .DEVOUR._**

 ** _ILUS._**

 ** _ETHEREAL ONES._**

 ** _CITADEL._**

 ** _.MACHINE._**

 ** _KEEPER_**

 ** _BLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOOD_**

 ** _DEATH._**

John snapped his neck back and raised his rifle to fire a three-round burst into his counterparts centre of mass. The bullets passed through effortlessly, passing right through Jane without doing anything at all.

"What. The. **Fuck**. Was. _That!?_ " John shouted as Jane dropped to her knees visibly shaken.

"That, was the contents of both the Prothean and Ethereal Beacons – they where the first things I awoke too other than robots with lightbulbs for heads and cyborg Vipers" Jane said as she rose to her feet once more, a trickle of blood started to run from her nose, she raised her hand to wipe it and swore to herself.

"Fuck, we don't have much time left – I don't know how much XCOM knows but the Ethereals and Protheans knew each other and the Ethereals where shit scared of whatever the fuck it was that wiped out the Protheans so the both of them left, left traces behind to finish off whatever the fuck these bigger bad guys where. There was an Alien who tried to access the beacons after I did . . . you call them Turians? White Armour and a fuckload of ugly – whispering to himself something to do with a 'Cipher' . . . "

Jane dropped to her knees and started to cough up blood, John saw as the same slow burning trick of blood was oozing from her tear-ducts and ears.

"When we leave this place . . . back outside . . . my mind is in pieces and having to carry this fucking shit in my head won't help" Jane growled in anger as she gritted her teeth to continue "Find evidence, any evidence – find that damned Cipher. I don't want to go back to being what I was before . . . being immersed in that madness again . . . use the message I gave them . . . and . . . and . . ."

John was already her side, and even though he knew that the place that held them was within the realm of her mind – lowered her slowly to the recovery position as she finished.

* * *

 _ **/-/ Eden Prime /-/**_

 _" . . . vigilo confido"_ Jane uttered almost silently as the stasis field dropped alongside the Psionic barrier – the blast of the explosion had passed minutes ago and John felt the sheer temperature of the flames around them prick his skin even beneath his armour.

"Sir? Commander Shepard?" Alenko shouted over the din of the roaring flames as John dropped to his knees and sunk into unconsciousness himself.

"JOKER!" Alenko shouted into his Omnitool "Where the hell is our evac?!"

"Moments away sir" Joker replied as Alenko finally saw the form of their rescue – Joker had chosen not to send the Skyranger's but drop the Omaha in from orbit himself, the vessels thrusters, displaced mass and kinetic fields acting as a massive series of buffers to fan, dim or extinguish the flames.

He did note however the MEC/SPARK unit Skyranger launching almost lazily from the Omaha's hangar bay and noted the fact that yes . . . he had not seen Jenkins anywhere. The mission had been without casualties, he really hoped that was true for the post-misison debriefings as the Omaha used her mass-effect fields to reduce her mass enough to land on the scorched surface of Eden Prime a little over 100 meters away, the open hangar bay floor becoming the primary access point as squads of PHU soldiers moved to support the planet-side teams and medics arrived to aid the wounded.

* * *

 _ **/-/ 2 hours later /-/**_

 ** _/-/ Medical bay of Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/_**

John awoke in the cool yet well lit insides of the medical bay. It seemed he had his own private room, to one side of him stood the form of Doctor Chakwas, the other Captain Anderson.

"Shepard, how are you feeling" Anderson spoke first.

"Like I've been punched by a Muton sir" John managed to half-chuckle through the pain.

"Commander" the flanged voice of Doctor Chakwas spoke – he turned to face the elderly pale skinned Skirmisher, and saw the enlarged eyes and bald head – despite her once startling appearance Doctor Chakwas stood smiling "I know you don't like people sugar coating things for you, you've got considerably elevated blood pressure and your electrolytes are out of balance, the usual set of post-combat bumps and bruises but no broken bones. What worries me is this-"

The doctor turned and brought up what looked like a series of brain scans of himself for however long he was out.

"-your neurological pathways have been put under a sudden amount of extreme stress, the areas of the brain that govern the use of your Psionics seem to have been put under pressure by the surrounding tissues as if you where experiencing a series of localised cancers . . . and for the entire time your brain was slipping between the stages of extremely seep REM sleep and what appeared to be a coma – yet somehow you managed to awake."

"How do you feel John?" Anderson inquired again.

"I want to know . . . where the woman is? The redhead we found" He questioned.

"We have her under sedation" Doctor Chakwas confirmed.

"Why?"

"Because on her arrival to the ship she awoke and was half-psychotic" Anderson answered for her "She bit no less than three nurses, punched another into a bulkhead with some kind of psi-infused punch than giggled herself into some kind of crying fit and then took a swing at Doctor Chakwas" Anderson continued.

"It is my reason to believe that the female . . . is suffering from a form of extreme PTSD despite the inconsistencies in her identity" Chakwas said aloud as John rose to his feet.

"Inconsistencies?" John asked.

"Well it would appear commander . . . " Chakwas began before she stopped herself because of how impossible it sounded.

"She's Master Sergeant Jane Shepard, or at least she appear to be – her appearance and DNA are a probable match along with dental records . . . but she's been dead for over 150 years" John said the words himself, knowing hos impossible it sounded.

"Yes." Anderson replied for Doctor Chakwas.

"She's also half insane" John continued.

"Yes" Doctor Chakwas replied this time.

"I spoke to her." John said "she grabbed my arm and dropped us into the bridge of the Temple Ship, back in 2019. Not really there, but her memory of being there."

This time John stopped himself, almost almost afraid of sounding insane himself.

"Go on, son" Anderson implored.

"Then we where together . . . in the first XCOM base, in the Gollop chamber. Before the Ethereals destroyed it all. She gave me a message. One from both the Ethereals and the Protheans, but it's fragmented . . . bits and pieces of emotions, images . . . "

"What did you see, Shepard?" Andersons tone was replaced with a cold, distant and determined sense of something John had not sensed before. Almost like fear, mixed with another ribbon of emotion that Anderson was actively hiding from John.

"The Protheans where being attacked . . . wiped out . . . so much blood and death, and the Ethereals knew. They . . . tried to help? The Protheans?" John continued almost sure he sounded insane now "She told me what she did to the Temple Ship to end up here now, and told me that the images . . . the visions she had taken from the beacons needed something else, something called a 'Cipher' to decode them. After that she couldn't sustain whatever it was that held us together and the . . . whatever it was ended."

"Now she's back in the real world, and the whatever damage she did to herself is taking it's toll" Shepard finished "Anderson, sir? Who can I report this to? I'm not even sure what half of this is myself?"

"Shepard, our entire conversation has been recorded from the moment you set forth on this ship, you where assaulted psionically by a supposedly dead woman after a PHU colony was wiped off the face of the planet. Is there any other Intel you can give us son? Anything else we should know?"

"There was a council spectre . . . . who's working with the Geth and the Vipers, who got the the beacons as well" John put forward.

"We know that another spectre was there – Nihlus was shot in the face by him" Anderson filled in the gap for John.

"Is Nihlus?" John asked.

"Alive, the event was witnessed by a PHU soldier who had rescued . . . Jane from close to the Beacon site. We have the gun and helmet camera footage to confirm everything."

"So what are we going to do Anderson? Am I in charge or should I be calling you sir right now?" John finalized the events of the conversation.

"You're in charge . . . but you need rest, go and get some while the rest of the mission Intel is put together to Command, I'll have Joker tell you when everyone is ready" Anderson finished, putting a hand on John's Shoulder.

"You did good son" Anderson said as John left to his quarters.

* * *

 **/-/ 3rd March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Arcturus System /-/**

 ** _/-/ Briefing room of Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/_**

 _" ** _Hello Commander"_**_

The voice sent shivers down John's spine – as it had done every time he had heard it, deep down inside he wondered if the Spokesman ever genuinely looked or sounded like that but the thought was quickly pushed aside.

 ** _ _"This council of spokesmen has seen the evidence put forward by yourself and your team, and despite the loss of Eden Prime you are to be commended."  
__** _  
_John shifted his pose from being at attention to at ease as the voice continued.  
 ** _ _  
"Seeing the evidence and accounts of yourself and your team as well as the survivors of the assault we have reason to believe that the initial declaration of Winter Contingency will henceforth be raised to the declaration of Year-End Contingency."  
__** _  
_John's eyes shot wide open at this statement, the four contingencies where put into place as XCOM level safeguards in the event of Alien attacks, assaults or the returned subjugation of the Pan-Human races. Year-End contingency was the final safeguard above all others, an all purpose call to arms to militarise the entire population with the exception of children and the infirm and prepare for an apocalypse level scenario.

Something out there worse than the Ethereals.

The spokesman continued. _  
_

 ** _ _"In the light of your intelligence we has concluded that the Council Spectre Saren Arteirus was involved on the assault of Eden Prime. To maintain relations with the Council you must first take the Omaha to the Citadel and present this evidence to the Council Directly. Once this is done with their permission or not you must take every step to terminate the Council spectre and use whatever gathered Combat Intel he has to find the 'Cipher' Both yourself, Jane Shepard and Ashley Williams have referenced. It will be vital to our continued survival."__**

 ** _ _"You will have any and all resources you need provided for this mission. Good luck. Commander."__**

The transmission was cut at the other end, leaving more questions than answers. First of all the identity of Jane was never questioned, leaving the simple fact that Command obviously believed that the half-raving woman they had recovered from the surface was indeed who she appeared to be. Next was the level of alarm they where willing to put into the situation, and the lack of contact from any XCOM cell on Eden Prime, and the simply fact they at least wanted to keep some kind of political face with the council before killing one of their agents. Something about the who situation didn't sit well with John in any of this – he felt as if he was teetering on the brink of an abyss he may not come back out of once this had begun.

He left the briefing room still in thought, the situation had however already begun, and he was caught in it as everyone else. With this in mind he moved through the corridors of the Omaha with a grim purpose as he tapped the controls of his multi tool.

"Joker, Shepard here"

"Go ahead sir" Joker replied.

"We have orders to head directly to the Citadel council – how long do you think you can get us there?" John asked as he moved across to the crew deck.

"A little under 10 hours sir, why?"

"Get us there as fast as you can, and inform the Normandy and Utah we will be underway."

"Aye aye sir" Joker finished as he begun the necessary changes and John closed the channel.

* * *

 **/-/ 3rd March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Arcturus System /-/**

 **/-/ Temporary Quarters, Lance Corporal Ashley Williams onboard Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/**

Ashley laid back in the bunk of her allocated room, it was an overhead bunk recessed into the wall much like the desk below it – with a small portion of the room taken up by the combined toilet, and shower wet room – the whole space was barely 2 meters side and 3 long including the internalised wash-room but it was quiet, it was alone and it was hers.

After boarding the Omaha and handing over her plasma rifle and armour to the Quartermaster she had undergone the medical tests that normally followed combat and the interrogations that followed a colony being wiped clean off the face of a planet.

Rolling through the post-mission de-briefing took longer than usual simply to make sure she had managed to get everything she remembered out of her mouth before it simply faded into a post-combat haze; but it honestly did not help that the lieutenant in charge of her de-brief was not her unit or even squad commander, everyone else in her unit, every friend but thankfully not family member (as she was alone on Eden Prime) had been slaughtered, if not by the Geth then by their Viper companions or those husk-like zombie things that they had made out of any survivors of the assault (survivors being any human being living or dead who's body or corpse was in enough of one piece to mount on the spire like objects that the PHU was nicknaming 'Devils Teeth') and then systematically wiped out anyone or anything along the way.

She had watched the XCOM sleeper units and their Avenger class Dreadnought (who's name she didn't know and upon enquiring turned out to be equally classified) rise from somewhere over the horizon to the west, Firestorm interceptors fighting against Geth frigates and their half-squid super-dreadnought and getting wiped out entirely before their command vessel twitched one of the tendrils hanging from it's belly and firing a blood red beam that

screeched through the air and sliced the XCOM vessel in half, through it's primary shields, kinetic barriers and alien alloy hull – hitting it's elerium generators and blasting the XCOM vessel into fragments before it could even get into it's own firing range.

Ashley had described her units to-and-for squad level assaults with her team and a few other rag-tag members of both the PHU forces and even a rare XCOM member before she somehow ended up alone and elbow deep in hell – which was when the screaming redhead had emerged firing off null-blasts as if she was a psionic Mag cannon on full auto whilst screaming utterly mad obscenities and laughing hysterically, and following this human train of destruction she had managed to claw her way into the path of the three teams of the XCV Omaha and the rest ended up with her here, alone and hurting.

Ashley never could cry, she had to force the tears out for her former friends. It wasn't as if she missed them, the pain and loss stung so hard that simply crying didn't seem enough, but here without her unit and with out orders everything seemed pointless.

At this moment she heard a knocking at the door to her new quarters and snapping back to reality she uttered "Yes, come in" and rose to her feet.

The man who entered the room she had seen on Eden Prime, tall with short shaven but not bald hair, striking features and a warm smile.

"Ashley Williams, my names Commander Shepard, and before you salute – at ease. I know this must be tough for you" He said as he extended a hand to shake before she raised to salute him.

"Commander Shepard? As in Mi-" She began.

"Yes, Mindior – I'm all too ware with pain and loss."

Ashley knew Shepard's name if not reputation as one of the few who had survived against horrifying losses including most of their friends and families when the Batarian funded pirate strike against the colony kidnapped thousands into slavery and killed thousands more. Those who survived Mindior made a tough reputation out of the fact they stood grim and resolute in the face of Batarian evils, forcing them to pay for every inch of the colony in blood. What made things even sweeter was that without having to call for an open war against the Batarian species – PHU marines and even a few XCOM operatives allowed themselves to be captured and then using the guise of being slaves against their masters mind-controlled high ranking Batarians and leaders. It was an open secret that the Batarian rebellions where an XCOM revenge ploy, by forcing enough leaders to look the other way – forcing ignorance or outright killing them with mind-rips or soul-fire had forced a massive open rebellion of the slave castes against their owners that shut down the entire Batarian government and forced them into a two decade long civil war that still raged to this day.

"Ashley, I am here to say that as commander of this vessel, if there is anything you need all you need to do is ask. But I also have two things for you first." Shepard continued as he motioned to an Omnipad and a box in the other hand she had missed when he had entered the room.

"First of all I have this for you" He reached down and opened the small black velvet coated box, inside against a purple velvet interior was a single badge medal. "It's the Colonial Cross – the highest ranking PHU decoration awarded for service above and beyond the limits of singular bravery, daring and devotion."

Ashley motioned to speak but found she could not, the noise caught in her throat escaped halfway between a cough and a gulp.

"The Colonial Cross is to be awarded to every member of the 2nd Frontier Division alongside the 1st posthumously" Shepard continued as he set the box down openly upon the open desk surface in the room. With the lack of furniture and personal effects it stood out, screaming it's solitary presence.

Shepard then pulled out the pad and tapped a few motions on it before turning it to face Ashley.

"These are requisition orders, for the entire 2

nd Frontier Division to be permanently charged to the XCV Omaha under the command of myself, Commander John Shepard and Captain David Anderson."

"Sir I -" Ashley began, tears moments away from being shed.

John placed his spare hand on her shoulder.

"As I said, anything you need – just tap the pad when you are ready."

With that he gave her a warm smile and stood to attention, and Saluted the younger PHU marine, which she then returned. Without another word he turned and left the room.

5 minutes later the order was completed.

* * *

 ** _/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/_**

Yep – Doctor Chakwas is a Skirmisher also, I figured with a name that sounded so much like Skirmisher naming styles (also Masini) it made sense to move her ever so slightly across in the species box.

Also

 _ _ **HELLO COMMANDER**__ _._

Isn't it amazing how you can hear the voice in your head just by typing the words a certain way? I had fun doing that.

Ashley is now onboard and the next few chapters will obviously be the Citadel arc, but having to move back and show Batarian history as well as a fun little thing, especially as it's just passing on what living people in the PHU know of the others and their own histories, even if it is within the realms of military science fiction/space horror/opera.

Replies and Reviews will of course be appreciated, as I've been really surprised so far at the levels of acceptance I've seen since I've started writing this – thanks to you all who have done so far.

Tarrah for now.


	12. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 7

**..**

 **..**

 **..**

 **/-/ 4th March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/**

 **/-/ Quarters, Commander John Shepard of Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/**

* * *

John awoke suddenly, his hand reaching instinctively for the Gauss Pistol that was stowed in it's safety harness underneath his bunk. As he blinked and took rapid breaths he calmed himself, his fingers on the very edge of the safety latch that held the pistol and it's trio of emergency clips in place.

It was another nightmare, the third he had since he had attempted to go to sleep several hours ago. His mind clung hastily to the images and raw emotions that had assaulted him and in hindsight he knew exactly what it was that haunted his resting hours, the endless stream of images that Jane Shepard had forced into his mind in an effort of understanding what the twin beacons had heaved into her own head.

He sighed and brought himself slowly to his feet, brushing his fingers through his hair as he moved to the shower cubicle and attempted to wash away the combined images and fatigue before his duty shift would begin.

Short minutes later he was clean, shaven and suited up in the standard issue XCOM BDU and well on his way to the lower decks of the Omaha. Occasional crew members either nodded or gave short salutes as he passed his way through to the central elevators and down several levels to the Foundry.

Despite reading the after action reports of Kaidan and Jenkins hours ago alongside the medical reports Dr Chakwas had put forward on the various team members behalf John figured that he might as well check in on one of his fire-team leaders while he was still missing out on sleep.

A centre point on every front-line XCOM and PHU vessels was the interlinked decks that formed the combined research, development and manufacturing decks that where used for their exactly named purpose, researching weapons and Armour technologies, developing them for field deployment and manufacturing them on the fly from the vessels internal nano-fabrication plants of omni-gel reserves. In between front-line deployments XCOM vessels would link their resources together in a form of vast "cloud" storage which would allow independent researchers and teams to work on projects on-site and then upload their results for other teams on other vessels or stations to pick up where they left off – while the council, their spectres and even the STG knew of this vast closed military network actual intrusions where rare due to the multifold safety precautions in place due to the sensitive nature of the data being transferred and uploaded into it – aside from it being a vastly upgraded version of the Ethereals psionic network that required at least an activation in person from a psi-rated member of staff the only actual means of physically accessing the terminals meant assaulting and boarding a PHU or XCOM ship.

Not something their cold war counterparts took lightly.

A burst of tropical heat assaulted Johns senses as he entered the Foundry levels along with the typical smells of various sample metals and materials and the dull orange lighting within, offset by various holographic displays and screens projecting light blue hues across the room.

A short distance within John found the man he was looking for, Corporal Jenkins moving around the room with a datapad held within his right hand, and his left arm was detached at the Alien Alloy docking port in his shoulder.

Jenkins turned and smiled with a friendly "Hello Commander" as a detached arm on the desk waved at him. Without another moment Jenkins placed the datapad on the desk, picked up the spare left arm and attached it into his shoulder port with an audible click. A heartbeat later the arm was fully connected with his nervous system and working as well as any natural limb would do.

"So, how are you holding up Corporal?" John asked as he moved forward between the twin nano-fabrication plant outputs on either side of the multi-level Foundry.

The twin nano-fabrication plants where a mixture of commonly known Citadel technologies that had been lifted from the various Prothean beacons around the galaxy that had led to the development of Omni-gel which was a mixture of programmable nano-bots with a form of paste comprised of plastics, ceramics and light alloys which could be programmed via an Omni-hook or compatible device to produce anything from household electronics to temporary shelters to small firearms depending on the available Omni-gel, blueprints and "printing" licenses similar to 3D printing on Earth before even the first invasion but on a vastly more powerful scale.

What made PHU and XCOM manufacturing that more effective was the introduction of MELD which Corporal Jenkins and soldiers like him had re-discovered in their service of the Reaper faction on Earth. Small samples of this half biological half cybernetic material had been dumped on Earth during the first invasion and the Ethereals testing of the Human race and under XCOM's usage it had been used for limited genetic hybridization by infusing certain operatives with aspects of Alien biology to copy the enemies capabilities and eventually the production of MEC suits and the cybernetic advancements involved.

Before the second contact with the various Citadel races MELD continued to be used for just that – the occasional biological integration of organs that would not be rejected by the host for diseases and syndromes that could not be treated with Gene Therapy or the MEC integration of members of the Reaper faction who had been grievously injured by either the Lost or the many billions of Chrysalids that still roamed the Earth. For many who would be attached by these creatures their poison would mean at the very least a nasty amputation and a very probable death as their biomass was converted from the inside out into the production of new Chrysalids. With the introduction of Omni-hooks and Omni-blades and eventually Medi-Gel a former and very painful death sentence was reduced to a clean amputation and cybernetic implants to replace lost limbs or the upgrades into becoming MEC troopers in full.

Eventually an XCOM scientist onboard the XCF "Everest" managed to combine the adaptability and versatility of MELD with Omni-Gel and the first true nano-fabrication plants where created – capable of producing materials en-mass by either altering the light metals within the Omni-gel into heavier materials or by altering their atomic mass on the fly into any other material needed on an atomic level, and if the nano-fabrication plants did not have the materials needed they would either take the input of electrical power to create more MELD or Omni-gel within themselves until they did or rip the required molecules out of the ambient environment until they did and then produce anything from a COIL pistol to a small starship depending on what was ordered – with only a few cases actually requiring the production of parts outside of the Nano-fabrication unit such as Element Zero or Elerium which always seemed to be just outside of the nano-fabricators abilities.

"Not bad commander, not bad at all" Jenkins said as he walked across with John to the SPARK storage docks where the units would undergo maintenance when they where either not in combat or not aiding the crew in the heavy scale maintenance of the Omaha herself.

"I've had all eleven of my units held here undergoing diagnostic scans since we faced off with the Geth." Jenkins motioned across to the static giants in their upright crib style bays, held aloft by a pair of alien alloy pincers at the waist with various wires and cables linking into the various ports in their Armour which would be covered during combat.

"I don't know exactly what the Geth did to them but I've had to run a complete scrub of their active RAM as well as re-instate backups of their systems from a read only drive I'd set up here on the Omaha." He continued as he motioned to show his commander the various pieces of technical magic he had set up to reboot his combat squad.

"Somehow they had blasted a fairly large chunk of their ECM and ECCM at us with bits and pieces of nonsensical code on radio, tight-beam and infra-red which got logged in my SPARK units in amongst the rest of their sensor data. When these pieces of code formed together at random it was like giving my units at least a hundred or so localised, individual viruses which would throw off their aim or cause their movements to jerk around and in one case this unit here-" Jenkins said as he pointed across to the third unit "-which somehow managed to have chunks of what looks like an inactive Geth program stored in one of it's backup buffers. I had to open channels to the Quarian ark-station back in Mars orbit just to confirm it."

"Wow, that could have been nasty" was all John could say, feeling the conversation was going to carry on a little longer before he could reach his own question.

"Luckily any unit that at least remained in line of sight I could maintain control over using my own MEC systems and augmented control, it turns out those AI's can't out-think a linked Human mind. Well. For now anyway." Jenkins said as he tapped his temple with an Alien Alloy digit with a sly smile on his face.

"Well I'm glad to hear it" John finally continued "But how are you doing?"

"Sir?"

"You where launched out of your MEC suit in an explosive blast caused by a starship sized Mass-Accelerator. You could at least have some bumps and bruises?" John finally got his point across.

"Ah, nothing I'm afraid sir." Jenkins smiled and scratched the back of his short fuzz of Marine cropped hair with the mechanical digits.

"MEC systems are pretty good in that regard – the whole suit has a system of double and triple redundancies at detected what it thought was enough damage to kill me and sealed me within my own cocoon and launched me before it actually could. The suit got beaten up pretty bad but that's just parts." Jenkins motioned to his still original, and mostly organic torso. "All I had to put up with as the indignity of going from what was 2 tonnes of fun to a human nugget for a few hours"

"A human . . . nugget?" John felt almost scared to ask.

"Y'know, no arms, no legs – just a body and a head. A human chicken nugget" Jenkins said trying to contain his laughter.

"A few hours later and some new limbs printed off and I'm combat green sir" he finished, sensing his own brand of gallows humor had freaked out yet another member of the crew.

"Good to hear it Jenkins . . . " Shepard said as he moved to leave the Foundry decks, leaving the Corporal behind to continue his duties.

"Commander?" Jokers voice cut through his Omni-tool catching John by surprise, although John was not to secretly relieved to be saved from the encounter.

"Yes Joker, what is it?" John replied, talking into his wrist Omni-tool as the walked back towards the central elevator stack.

"It's been almost 10 hours now sir, and we are almost at the Citadel" Joker finished.

"Thank you Joker I'm on my way" John finished as his journey moved him towards the bridge of the Omaha and the purple vistas of the Widow Nebula beyond.

* * *

As the final motions of mass effect travel erupted from the Widow Mass Relay the Omaha raced from the mass-free transit corridor and into the depths of the rolling clouds of transient gasses and particles that painted the endless violet skies of the Widow Nebula.

Being the most traveled and trafficked area within Citadel space beyond the home-world's and starting colonies of the original council races no other region would ever be home to as many ships or beings that passed to or fro on a daily basis.

The most recent changes to the Citadel and its traffic however where due to the most recent race to at least become known to the station and it's inhabitants – the races of the Pan-Human Union.

Beyond the cultural impact of the PHU and the fact they had been the only race other than the Yhag to have not entered the Councils purview (The Yhag being too violent to be permitted entry after a failed first contact that the Pan-Human Government only knew about from a vaguely mentioned footnote in a diplomatic package) after the first of many failed attempts to draw the Pan-Human Union into the Citadel Council and it's laws and the Pan-Human Unions responses the two sides now stood apart from one another – two sovereign powers that literally viewed each other from a distance.

In this case was the recently added second space station that kept a respectful distance of 100,000 kilometers from the Citadel that housed the Pan-Human Embassies that hosted diplomats and politicians from both sides to help promote peace and trade and prevent the outset of another war.

The O'Neill cylinder only had three outward facing arms in comparison to the Citadels five – and instead of hosting the thousand of skyscrapers and separate blocks used for for the thousands of other purposes the Citadel races used them for – these arms where giant mirrors that reflected the purple hazed light through the transparent aluminium walls of the station which in turn created the light purple glow of the water held above these segments. Combined with the internal earthworks and cities built inside the station and the centrifugal force that spun the station and created the gravity within was ripped straight from the images of the greatest science fiction illustrators from centuries before.

The far smaller 5 kilometer long station was only a tenth of the size of the original resident of the nebula – looking like a comically sized children's toy in comparison but the multi-role structure and function of the station suited the Pan-Human users wall. Besides the original purpose of being an Embassy and Diplomatic outpost it also served as a stepping stone for races on either side of the cultural divide to at least learn about each other and how they live on a day to day basis but it also served as the Pan-Human Unions answer to questions the Citadel Council had long since given up on answering and frankly made them uncomfortable to ask again.

For instance – where did the Citadel draw it's internal materials from? It was a well known fact that the council races would bring their own materials to build structures and buildings but where did the Keepers bring in their own materials that they used to effectively merge these new additions into the station itself? Or the materials they used to periodically build new structures? The keepers never left the Citadel and never used any vessels or supply lines so where were they keeping these materials? Their factories? Why has the Council only actually mapped 40% of the entire structure and simply given up? Why had they still not found the master control systems that allowed the arms that could obviously open and close be used? Even for defensive purposes?

On top of this – the most disturbing question of all, even if it left out the Pan-Human intelligence that the Citadel was somehow dangerous was the fact the entire station was and still is monitoring it's inhabitants to create a day and night cycle for it's inhabitants. What other uses did the Citadel have for this information? And the Keepers who no doubt added to the clutch of information that the station itself must be gathering.

Finally the worst question of all – the Keepers and the Protheans. Why did the Keepers remain whilst their masters where curiously absent? Even ignoring the obvious path to the Protheans extinction and the warnings the Pan-Human Union mounted regarding that subject – the Keepers where a race that where obviously both biologically and cybernetically augmented to the point they where now slaves to the station and it's whims. That alone should have spoke volumes to the Citadel races about their precursors and their intentions given they had forced another race into a form of slavery so deep that they had no hope of ever escaping from it because to do so meant certain death.

Time after time the Citadel Council had no good responses to these questions or the disturbing answers that may lie behind them – and although the two embassies had not passed word since on the matter, but the Citadel races had since mounted further expeditions into the station in an attempt to both prove the Pan-Human Union wrong (or horrifyingly right) and at least get to the bottom of some of the other mysteries the ancient station they lived in.

The effort was under-funded and carried on forward at a snails pace, but slowly but surely C-Sec and the council explorers plumbed the depths of the station and found a few disparate factories and warehouses but no sign of the vast storage facilities that would feed the former structures, no sign of where the Keepers emerged from beyond where they could be found already and no answers to the other questions their neighbors kept pressing.

In the mean time, even without Council status the Pan-Human Union wanted an embassy or diplomatic presence with the various races that they shared the galaxy with but the issue quickly arose in that the Citadel Council could not answer the security questions that arose from the Citadel itself and the council races where apprehensive to build embassies deep in Pan-Human space where their safety could not be fully guaranteed and the mobilization of troops and ships would only serve to further frustrate the stubborn and hot-headed elements of both sides.

Eventually a compromise was put forward by members of the Templar faction of the Pan-Human Union. Permission to build the O'Neill Cylinder space station known as the Widow Embassy.

Widow Embassy was now home to just over 200,000 humans and aliens and was often quoted as being the "Best, Last hope for peace" by it's fans who often quoted a lost and nearly forgotten forgotten television show who every so often placed a permission on the PHU Omni-net to rename it to "Babylon 5". It also housed a respectful dry-dock for several cruisers and destroyers that called the station home alongside a significant floor-space (as useful as that term was in space) for civilian thoroughfare and trade.

"Good timing commander, I was just about to bring us into Widow Embassy" Joker said aloud as he noticed John moving behind him and overlooking the holographic displays that fed his view of the stars beyond. "Time to see that XCOM budget at work"

As the Omaha silently made it's way between the sub-pockets of gasses and particles it was undergoing a vast array of electronic scans, hand-shakes and parcel returns as the many thousands of electronic eyes and ears pinged each other and every incoming and outgoing vessel in the vicinity. Being such a vast space made little difference when thousands of vessels from every race could be at play at any given moment so a vast electronic net of IFF and transponder signals carried the identity and purpose of each and every ship to every other ship in the system, aided by hundreds of separate FTL and locator buoys that gave every ship a location to be placed or a path to follow to maintain the smooth flow of traffic in every direction in the three dimensional sea of stars.

"Widow Embassy control this is the XCF Omaha requesting docking clearance and disembarkation" Joker said aloud as the communications channel opened on his behalf.

"Rodger XCF Omaha, you have clearance for docking in docking bay Eleven-C and disembarkation request has been approved. Welcome to the Widow Embassy and enjoy your stay." The anonymous female operator replied as the comm channel closed and the Omaha was provided with a set of three-dimensional instructions for Joker to follow that would lead the Omaha on a pre-approved route through the traffic to the Widow Embassy.

Through the 270 degrees of the holographic displays John could see the vast forms of the Citadel defense fleet – hundreds of warships ranging from the predatory wings of Turian frigates and Cruisers to the swept forms of Asari and Salarian vessels alike – all in various pockets and sub-groups with the Citadel flagship at its centre, the Destiny Ascension.

It was, as joked would admit an impressive sight for the only vessel in Citadel space that could match a PHU or XCOM dreadnought in size – in total it was roughly two kilometers tall almost one and a half wide and roughly another kilometer deep. Granted it could never match the firepower of the PHU dreadnoughts that laid deep within Pan-Human space, let alone their shields and defenses – but it stood as a symbol that the Citadel could at least match the Pan-Human Union when it came to building _big_ ships.

A few minutes later the Omaha was pulling slowly into one of the many docking arms of the Widow Embassy station and the moment came to start the political wheels in motion from the events of the not-to past of Eden Prime.

* * *

 _ **/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

Okay, that's Christmas done and dusted.

I'll be honest – I struggled a little with the ideas to get from A to B with this chapter so I opted to take a step back from the simple task of getting the characters from point A to point B and attempted to give some in universe storytelling about the history and technology of the Pan-Human Union as well as their current standing towards the Citadel, which will be more expanded upon in the next few chapters now I've regained some pacing with my writing.

I've re-introduce MELD as you've read above put it's now more multi-purpose in it's use – MEC troopers obviously exist but gene modding not so much, there aren't exactly any hostile races around for XCOM to rip the organs and gene-codes out of to use the technology MELD represents, and the Council aren't exactly about to willingly hand over their citizens for blatantly hostile and non-ethical experimentation.

I will revisit this idea in the future however.

Yes, I created a whole sister-station to the Citadel – as it would be the only place that would actually make sense for the PHU to use and it gives a whole wealth of other ideas and concepts to explore, including the disturbing questions I put forward above. I'm looking forward to expanding on this idea soon as well.

As for Jenkins, he's somewhat of a twisted puppy with a twisted sense of humor, but he's also a quadruple amputee and a former Reaper faction member so I feel it suits him.

A lot of things are going to change significantly more from canon from here on out, so I'm glad for all of you that have read so far and have liked/favorited the story – if you have anything to add then please leave me a review and I will endeavor to reply to you all either via message or in the story itself.

In the mean time, Tarrah for now.


	13. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 8

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 **/-/ 4th March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/**

 **/-/ Widow Embassy Station /-/**

* * *

The solution that the Pan-human Navy had come up with for the topic of how they could organise the various means of loading and offloading capitol ships was perhaps one of the most ingenious that the races of the Citadel had seen for many years.

Many races had developed docking arms and clamps for large capitol class vessels to dock with stations and one another – but the total size of the clamp and airlock systems depended on the size of the vessel itself, and the purpose of which each airlock would be used.

The Turians for example used multiple docking airlocks for personnel to load and offload the vessel at multiple points along the ships hull to prevent situations where standard operations would impede upon the efficiency of the ship itself. For any large scale operations involving the movement of vehicles or larger supplies they would make the use of specialized shuttles to load said items through the vessels main cargo bays.

The downside of this design meant the vessel had multiple points to defend if the ship was ever boarded by hostile forces, but the utility of the design and its standardised airlock system meant a Turian ship could dock with any other Turian ship at any logical point along the hull by extending a set of docking arms across and securing a temporary airlock as needed if the receiving vessel was damaged or in need of aid.

For the Asari – their use of small specialized teams never seemed to include any form of vehicular combat or combined arms tactics, if they needed to draw in additional forces the Asari commando teams would be used in conjunction with Turian or Salarian forces who would provide the additional punch needed for their assaults. As a result Asari warships developed a series of similar docking airlocks for personnel and cargo decks for shuttles that would be used for planetary assaults or landings, but no real system for deploying fighters and similar craft.

The Salarians used a very similar system to the Turians, but with adaptations in place for their various stealth craft and fighters – and Salarian craft where normally designed to punch fast and hard and then retreat if their alpha-strike based combat didn't win the initial fight.

As it turned out, only the Batarian Hegemony had the closest method of airlock systems and docking clamps similar to those used by the Pan-Human Union in that their ships where designed so that any vessel that made use of a cargo or flight deck system had a massively over-sized docking clamp built into the floor-space of those vessels. The general idea being that in the three dimensions of space, the two vessels or single vessel and station could turn and align their undersides to one another and dock through their belly mounted systems and then disable the gravity within those combined spaces and move through hundreds of personnel and thousands of tons of cargo at once. The alternate use of this system was put into use by Batarian pirates who would include vastly over-sized cutting arrays into these systems which would then be used to forcefully clamp onto and saw their was into enemy vessels – and then disgorge hundreds of raiders at once, often into multiple decks and sections in a way that for the defender was nearly impossible to fight off.

For the Pan-Human-Union and by extension XCOM vessels a system was designed early on for a docking system that would be used by all vessels frigate sized and above, that would allow for the mass embarkation and disembarkation of personnel and cargo or all sizes in that every O'Neill station, military station and even vessels of the PHU "Cruiser" scale and above was equipped with vastly over-sized airlocks which where scaled to match in size with the under-slung cargo and launch hangars of every PHU/XCOM ship.

In effect, as the "Omaha" approached Widow Embassy and the various IFF signals where transferred too and fro, the navigation corridor lead the vessel to a docking bay door which matched perfectly in size with the Omaha's own hangar bay – as the Omaha approached the airlock system opened and the Omaha lowered itself vertically "down" towards the station until the hangar bay matched in position with the open airlock and then the vessel continued to lower until the specific hull locking points of the Omaha met with those of Widow Embassy and then locked into place.

As the internal space between the airlock and the now contained hangar bay began to pressurize the elevator systems within the Omaha now became an extension of those of Widow station and vice-versa and the entire floor-space of the Omaha's hangar bay was now in function the entire airlock to the station – a work-space of of hundreds of meters squared that allowed fleets of forklifts and SPARK's to work within and a transfer of goods and persons that was practically unmatched by any system or technology that was used within Citadel space.

Within a few short minutes of docking John had been contacted by Captain Anderson, who had left out any specific reason for his contact – but had organised a meeting on his behalf with the diplomatic staff onboard Widow station.

Obviously the diplomatic wheels had been set into motion from his prior meeting the XCOM spokesman days before, and Anderson must have been contacted separately from his own meeting. In function it made sense for each member of the crew and command staff to have their own objectives and agendas if those activities met together for the end result.

In practice this usually worked, but in application however John hated the thought of having to deal with diplomats and politicians before then having to move on to military objectives. Saren Arteirus would have to be dealt with, with or without the councils blessing and the final result of this action could sour relations with the Citadel or even start a war so the grim task of putting this into motion would fall upon the chosen ambassadors for the Pan-Human Union.

As a result John had now policed his standard issue Gauss pistol to it's secure harness below his bunk and had changed from his standard issue XCOM BDU to his Service dress uniform which had dated back to the first Ethereal War in its dull Gray with yellow lined trim and XCOM logo alongside the PHU logo in black and yellow on his chest with medals for his various operations against the Batarian Hegemony pirates and N7 Training on the other.

It never took long to get to grips with the triplicate system of elevators and transit cars that allowed for fast and usually efficient travel through an O'Neill cylinder – they where normally built in a spiral that started at equal distances apart on one end of the station and then met at the other, which formed from most station maps what looked like a DNA stand in triplicate that allowed for transport to any point within the stations 5 mile length without having to walk any further than a single mile on foot to get where you needed to be. The system worked, and was outwardly designed to look similar to subway cars from the cities of Earth in the 20th and 21st centuries, complete with underground stations and thoroughfare points to the surface interior of the space station as a whole.

Within the half-hour walk from the internal space where the Omaha had docked, through the industrialized military and cargo docks and then the elevators that met with those docks and the central spine of the station itself John had felt at home once more.

There was something distinctly "Human" about the designs of the O'Neil stations that the populace of the combined human races called home. Despite the use of mass effect compressed alien alloys in their construction and Elerium generators that powered them, every effort was put into place for a design that was thoroughly placed within the world that had been lost in the aftermath of the Second Ethereal War, and once he reached his station the traditionally designed subway car continued on its path and he followed the path of the station, built with concrete and steel to look like the original layout and design of a 20th century American subway station as he then moved through the short corridor lined with the almost iconic white tiles before he then climbed the stairs up to the true interior of the station.

Through the center of the station there was a vast "pillar" of light that ran from one end of the station to the other that was a mass effect field that contained a burning furnace of nuclear fusion that was carefully contained and measured to provide light and heat exactly the same as Sol – the cycle of it's burning was exactly the same as the day and night cycle of Earth and was in fact slightly randomized every day to provide a "realistic" day and night cycle. The interior floor of the cylinder was split into six sections with three being the internal floor and the other half as the transparent aluminium that aligned with the exterior arms of the station, each was covered with the stations interior water supply in the five mile long lakes which would evaporate as the internal day and night cycle worked their part and then come down a light rain every evening which in turn maintained the soil and therefore plant life within the station which the Pan-Human occupants built their cities and townships upon, as well as growing crops within for both the purposes of growing food and providing a naturally governed oxygen supply.

With vast green fields all around, buildings that would not look out of place on any planet or colony, lakes filled with fish and internal weather cycles all combined to create the homes that Pan-Humanity had called home for the last one hundred and twenty years.

A few short minutes later John had made his way through the gardens that surrounded the main embassy buildings to the Citadel council, which where designed as a series of low three story buildings that housed individual embassies for the Asari, Drell, Elcor, Hanar, Krogan, Salarians, Turians, Quarians and Volus which where used day in and day out to discuss the many hundreds of separate treaties and deals that made up the bulk of Pan-Humanities dealings with the rest of the Galaxy as well as the Primary Embassy where the chosen ambassadors for the Pan-Human Union worked directly with the three Councillors of the Citadel council to smooth over the issues that arose from the PHU refusing to become a Citadel race.

Overall the day to day running of these Embassies went without incident, with each party working on behalf of their governments much akin to the day to day running of the same embassies within the Citadel Presidium but behind the scenes there was always one issue or another that needed to be pulled apart and discussed to ensure everything continued without incident. There was always an accusation or implied accusation that one race may be getting a better deal than another in terms of trade or technology but the fact of the matter was that the Pan-Human government tried it's hardest to keep everything on a level playing field without loosing the tactical advantages of it's armed forces or specialized XCOM units. As a result – working hand in hand with the Quarians and their own trade deals had led to the Quarians purchasing their own O'Neil station after working with Pan-Human engineers to develop the next generation of O'Neil stations which in turn led to the other races of the Citadel becoming offended because the PHU chose to work with "suit rats" before any of the others. Just before this led to a diplomatic incident various members of the Salarian Union came forward on behalf of their Dalatrasses asking for technical aid on their own research into working examples of Laser technologies.

On the one hand, various hardliners within the PHU where fundamentally against helping any aliens at all – and the Quarian deal was purely based in civilian applications, but the Salarians then offered up various pieces of research data on Mass Effect Cores which could be used on Pan-Human vessels and the deal was struck. Although the Salarians only had working prototypes of handheld Laser weapons, the entire galaxy had working GAURDIAN lasers for point defense which could be improved with the PHU's working knowledge of the technology and when approached by the Asari who then added in their own working examples of Mass Effect cores that had been improved with the use of Pan-Human static recollection technology in exchange for making the end result of this research open for all Citadel races led to a more complete working knowledge of the technologies involved for all parties.

The Turians had a barely disguised wariness of the PHU and XCOM from the war that had passed only a few short years before, so having an open look at their Laser technologies and techniques helped to in effect reveal some of the PHU and XCOM's tactical capability whilst also improving on their own and in the end the full deal passed with the only real naysayer being the Batarian Hegemony, who had been left out of the deal but only because they had not brought anything to the table themselves and where royally planted in the backwards and paranoid attitude that despite the end result being open for public consumption that the Citadel and Pan-Human Union where somehow holding something back from them.

Shortly afterwards came the free travel deal that had been given to some of the Krogan clans of Tuchanka. The reasoning behind this deal was laid open to the various and aghast races of the Citadel Council but only after a prolonged period of everyone loosing their diplomatic shit.

In what had become a historic agreement between the two races – had actually been an agreement between a Krogan mercenary known as Urdnot Wrex and a Pan-Human biogenetics startup known as Exogeni

During the first few years of the PHU and the rest of the rest of the galaxy getting to know one another Clan Urdnot and it's members where one of the various clans and subnations vying to try and secure a future on the ruins of their home-world. During this time Urdnot Wrex had been on the Citadel for one of many meetings and had gotten to know an at the time unknown PHU marine who was on shore leave upon the station. Always one to enjoy a fight, or even a story about a fight Wrex got to know the marine over drinks and was retold the stories of Earth and how the Reaper faction alongside the PHU and XCOM was fighting to reclaim their home in much the same way as his own people.

Which was when Urdnot Wrex learned about MELD, as well as the existence of lost Human technologies and research as well as the endless hoards of Chrysalids that needed to be cleared to reclaim the planet.

Never one to turn down a fight Urdnot Wrex approached the at the time juvenile PHU embassy with a deal.

Clan Urdnot would supply the only resource it had in abundance in exchange for curing the Genophage.

The resource in question being Krogan soldiers to aid PHU forces in urban combat, to wipe out Chrysalids and the Lost to reclaim human cities.

On the one hand, the Krogan and their inherent skills with urban combat and the ferocious nature of their home-world in honing their abilities would lead to a massive boon in reclaiming the Earth – after all, any Krogan who could survive their own hellblasted home would be the perfect combat asset on Earth.

On the other, the history of the Krogan race and the Genophage itself as a deterrent to their self-destructive tenancies and the councils reactions to another Krogan rebellion needed to be carefully considered. In the end a compromise was reached with both Urdnot Wrex, the Pan-Human Union and the Citadel Council.

In exchange for the efforts of the Krogan the Pan-Human Union would begin researching ways to lessen the effects of the Genophage rather than completely remove it, with an acceptable start to raise the number of viable pregnancies from one birth every thousand to one birth every seven hundred and fifty to an eventual level of one birth every five hundred with the practical application of technology allowing.

Unhappy but willing to move forward with this agreement was the basic description of the attitude of all involved.

So, with the aid of the PHU clan Urdnot migrated to Earth for the beginnings of their operations with the Reaper Faction in the ruins of Pheonix, Arizona and after a decade of solid fighting the Krogan came through with their end of the bargain by managing to clear and then hold the cities of Pheonix, Tuscon, San Diego and Los Angeles.

In return – PHU scientists working through Exogeni began their treatments to lessen the Genophage and for the first time in hundreds of years the number of Krogan live births began to rise at a slow, but noticeable rate. With resources graciously provided by the PHU the first crèches of Krogan young began to appear and a new attitude began to appear in Krogan culture – a quiet sense of hope that grew with every birth and a sense of silent admiration for the first race in generations that showed the Krogan what many believed to be a chance to prove themselves over their self-destructive tenancies.

Now, with the embassies for every race of the Galaxy except the Batarian Hegemony surrounding him John felt the weight of the meeting to come on his shoulders. Passing through the security gates and into the light, open interior of the building he shook hands with the Captain Anderson Ambassadorial attaché Donnel Udina as the trio moved through to the central room of the Embassy.

"Commander Shepard, I've had time enough to read your report from Eden Prime and I have to admit. This is not going to be good, I've passed along what recommendations I can to Miss Goyle but there is no guarantee the Council is going to like it"

"And what recommendations have you made Mr Udina?" Shepard asked as they passed through one of the interior plazas, a large and open space lit through the large glass ceiling.

"Well to be blunt commander, if it wasn't for the fact we have as much video evidence as we do the Citadel Council would never entertain the notion and Miss Goyle is working behalf of the PHU in numerous other affairs that will need addressing before everything is finalized" Udina started as they reached a large pair of heavy Oak doors "We can have Saren stripped of his Spectre status and have the council condemn his actions whilst having him marked as a fugitive. That will therefore remove a large portion of his capabilities in Council space, but we cannot do anything about his own contacts, the fact that we clearly has affiliations with the Geth and more disturbingly the Vipers in some way, shape or form."

Udina took a sharp intake of breath, his eyes moved to the still closed doors and back to Anderson and then the Commander.

"As it stands, Saren could quite happily hide in Citadel space or the Terminus systems until the end of time. There would be more than enough places out there for him to hide considering he has access to his own Dreadnought class vessel. The real problem is, is that the Pan-Human Union does not have access to a vast portion of Citadel space beyond civilian contacts, and sending a team – even a well armed and prepared team into Citadel space with only civilian transportation is going to hamstring us with Customs, with embargoes and issues with response times. Even worse – if that team needed to react to any form of Naval combat scenario they would certainly be destroyed." Udina spelled out the finality of the situation, it became clear quickly that any PHU or XCOM mission would need access to a dedicated warship, which was something the Citadel Council would almost certainly deny.

"So, as it turns out I did some reading Commander" Anderson cut in "And although the brass in the PHU navy are not to happy about, and XCOM are definitely not happy about . . . I think I have found us a solution."

A this point Udina gave a defiantly unhappy sigh of indignation.

"Commander, although Nihlus Kryik has been transferred off the Omaha for further medical treatment whilst he was aboard the ship, we where held under provisional Spectre authority for that mission" Anderson began, and John began to feel quickly uncomfortable with the direction this conversation was headed.

"We would never have a chance in hell for a Human to become a Citadel Spectre. We'd have to become members of the council first which would open an entire tin of Legal issues and reopen old wounds between ourselves and our counterparts, but if we had a Spectre aboard . . . "

"Then we could use their status with the council to let us into places we normally could not go." John finished the thought for him.

"While Andersons solution is creative . . . It does have it's flaws – for a start Nihlus Kryik was a known element for us, we knew who he was and how he operated and he was on the XCF Omaha with our blessing, it was almost a given he would be spying on us in some way, shape or form but it would have been passive – he was there to oversee the acquisition of the two beacons on behalf of both parties." Udina paused for a moment before he continued "This new Spectre would be your counterpart for this mission, which has defined goals but we do not know how long it would achieve them, or where they would lead to. During this time this Spectre would have full access to our vessel and personnel, and this would be an XCOM vessel under an open ended operation in multiple combat situations. They could learn about our weapons, our technologies as well as their applications. On top of this, no-one within the government back home is too happy about the fact that an XCOM vessel could effectively be put under the command of an alien if you where incapacitated or killed in any way during the mission."

"So we would have to tread carefully around this new Spectre who would most certainly be using us as much as we would be using them during the mission" John spoke the logical conclusion aloud.

"Exactly" Anderson said as he shifted on his feet "But in terms of diplomacy and in an effort to prevent a war it may be the only choice we have. Saren Arteirus devastated Eden Prime and we have to assume that he was acting alone and without support because the only other assumption would make things even worse."

"Sir?" John asked, not following Andersons implication.

"Anderson put this forward to me in our communications before you arrived. The only alternative is that Saren's actions where backed by the Citadel Council, which given the implications that has it could lead to the beginnings of a war." Udina finished the train of thought for him.

With that thought hanging in the air, the Oak doors to the central embassy opened and the Ambassador to the Citadel races walked through, wearing the white counterpart to the Service dress uniform with the PHU emblem upon her chest, blond hair with streaks of gray and a slight Eurasian features. Golye exhaled briefly before she began.

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you both Shepard, Anderson" she began before she turned to Udina "I guess I should thank you for the work you put in again Donnel, God forbid what would happen without you to put your mark on things. I should also thank you captain for your idea. The Council aren't happy about any of this, we should head to my office before we get into the details."

Ten minutes later the four humans found themselves in the office of Anita Goyle, overlooking the rest of the diplomatic embassy from the third floor, a wide open office complete with it's own open air balcony.

"So, here's the arrangement as it stands. The council are fuming with us for the loss of the beacons and the failure of the mission as it stands, but they could not turn down the evidence as it stands nor the fact that their own Spectre was injured but alive, so I guess we have you and your team to thank for that Commander" Goyle said aloud as she held a glass of water in one hand, slowly swirling it around as she leaned against her desk with the other.

"The only reason they are willing to go with any of what we put forward is because of the fact they have no other choice but to disavow Saren for his actions or face the consequences. As a result, they are assigning us with a Spectre for the XCF Omaha to bring Saren in, alive preferably so they can find out what the hell he is doing. Anderson, we have you to thank for the loophole even if the Admiralty back home are unhappy about it. Because of that you have been reassigned here for the time being"

"Under who's order" Anderson asked, trying to contain his anger at the decision.

"Mine, I figured you would end up on more than a few blacklists back home for that choice so I have put forward the suggestion that you be assigned here for the time being where you can not only screen your ideas through me before you screw your career over any more than you have too." Goyle replied.

"In the mean time, Commander Shepard" Goyle moved on as John found himself drawn into the conversation "I am forwarding the files of the new Spectre to you before you board the Omaha which has been given special status for the length of this mission. I suggest you make yourself familiar before you depart from the Widow nebula as there is no doubt he will be aboard by the time you return to your ship."

"Anderson, before the commander leaves I am tasking you with assembling any intelligence you can gather about Saren Arterius, any liaisons and contacts as well as any other known information you can. Make use of the Ambassadorial packets if you have too, I want the commander to have a clear line of information and objectives before he leaves the system" Goyle continued as she moved around to the other side of the desk and drew her seat.

"Ambassador, I have to ask – the help is appreciated. It's almost like you used to be in the Military?" John asked, getting a small smirk of a reply from the PHU Ambassador.

"Vigilo Confido Commander" was all she said in response as the holographic displays built into her desk lit in response to her sitting in the chair and he saw the name written across the displays in front of her alongside the picture of a Turian John was yet to meet.

"Now gentlemen, if you'll excuse me. I think we all have work to do" Goyle said as the conversation came to a close and the name hung in his mind, the one he had just read through the display – that of the spectre being assigned to the Omaha in place of Nihlus Kryik.

Spectre Garrus Vakarian.

* * *

 _ **/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

Okay, this is where shit will really start going down the road less taken.

I've chosen to stick with John's point of view in the story for now rather than keep switching characters to the Councils point of view until much later in the story, there are reasons for this I am going to keep secret for now and you, the beloved reader will see later on.

Yes Garrus, yes Spectre – no Wrex yet. No Tali yet either.

Things are going to start rapidly deviating from here, but should still seem familiar to the events of the original game.

In the mean time, Tarrah for now.


	14. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 9

**..**

 **..**

 **..**

 **/-/ 4th March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Widow Nebula /-/**

 **/-/ The Citadel /-/**

 **/-/ A Few Hours Earlier /-/**

* * *

For Garrus Vakarian his ascension to the ranks of Citadel Spectres had been ill-defined at best. Working within C-Sec for as long as he had done had given him both a foundation to do "the right thing" but over time he had gradually began to hate the endless levels of bureaucracy and legal tape that surrounded just about every task he had to undertake.

His father had been legendary within C-Sec as an organisation as well as the world of policing as a whole, and after his mandatory recruitment at the age of 15 he passed through the Turian military with the skills he needed to follow his fathers footsteps. After the parental pride had worn off Garrus finally discovered just how hard it would be to both follow the rules and do the right thing.

The case broke Garrus's belief in both following the rules and doing the right thing was his involvement in trying to take down a rouge Salarian known as "Dr Saleon" and a massive increase of body parts being sold across the citadel.

Initially it was thought that "Dr Saleon" was a manufactured alias and the Salarian in question didn't exist, many conspiracy theorists claimed that it was all a front for Pan-Human-Union spies to procure organ samples and genetic materials from Citadel races in sick repeat of the events that happened in their so called "First Encounter" with alien life.

After some investigation however it was discovered that Dr Saleon was very much real, and very much alive – and his employees where turning up in medical clinics across the station with a series of malformed or extraneous organs within their bodies without any sign of actual cloning or tests taking place, it was as if their bodies had started growing organs at random, and in some cases – organ analogues that didn't even match their own species in a case of a Turian worker who had suddenly begun to grow a Quarian kidney.

As it would eventually be discovered, Dr Saleon had fabricated an identity to get to know various members of the Human species, workers and technicians who had been working on the "Widow Embassy" that was being built a stones throw from the Citadel itself and learned of the modern use of the material they called "Meld" and it's use in nano-fabrication.

Combining his newfound knowledge of the material with what the substance used to be used for in the Human "First Contact War" led Dr Saleon through the chain of thought _-if-_ he could acquire a sample and _-if-_ he removed enough of the Omni-gel like material that had been mixed with it for it's modern construction purposes then he could in effect "reverse" it back to an original sample state and then had the edge over most Council scientists in the worlds of genetic manipulation and organ donor-ship.

It didn't exactly take much on his behalf to fund a few small time mercenaries to attack a few PHU construction sites and raise tensions somewhere else, then bribe one of the workers he had gotten to know into stealing some of the Nano-fabrication paste for him and then not to subtly killing that loose end. It was still the early days of the Council and the PHU being civil after the cold-war that had erupted out of the Second Contact War and Saleon found it laughably silly how fast the Citadel Council would throw themselves down in the path of PHU demands to simply keep the peace; and as a result Saleon found himself with several kilograms of the substance that the modern construction machines of the PHU used to build their stations – and inside that was an untold amount of Meld.

After many trial runs of filtering the various heavy metals and materials out of the substance (in some cases programming a small amount of Meld to remove the extra substances from itself and then introduce that sample to a larger sample to produce a larger quantity of "clean" Meld) Saleon had what he considered the closest thing he could achieve to an original Meld sample without actually having to go through the arduous process of going to the Human home-world itself.

In the next few years Saleon moved slowly and methodically to attempt to integrate small pieces of genetic code from one species to another, using willing donors under the guise of a corporate funded immunity test he had managed to integrate small samples of Turian DNA into a Quarian and vice-versa which was at least a start for combining species DNA with dextrose-amino acids. After that Saleon moved onto combining Asari DNA chains into Volus and then even more outlandishly, Krogan chains into Elcor, all the while slowly gaining more insights into what he could combine and into whom.

Keeping these original test subjects under his grip (many where impoverished and the only way they could see of actually gaining credits where through the various non-legal types of work or medical testing such as the type they thought they where undergoing) Saleon moved on to including more and more DNA chains and eventually retroactive activation of previous chains and instructions embedded within the Meld already inside their bodies.

Under the guise of a legitimate doctor – his subjects would return to him reporting feeling unwell and Dr Saleon would then anaesthetise his subjects and commit himself to living vivisections of these poor souls to see if his work had finished it's course – resulting in hundreds of excess organs being flooded into the market and Dr Saleon with the research he wanted under his belt.

With C-Sex rapidly closing in around him the good Doctor moved to acquire a vessel to take his research elsewhere and in so doing managed to somehow lay his hands on a Pan-Human Kowloon class freighter and was in the process of taking himself, his research and the few still comatose "patients" he had under his care into the terminus systems and becoming almost impossible to catch.

Vakarian, having managed to piece together the horrifying story and managing to positively identify Saleon as the perpetrator of the crime and the owner of the soon to flee vessel informed his superiors of the evidence he had – but Saleon had already jumped the proverbial gun and his vessel had already left the Citadel but thankfully not the Widow Nebula. Garrus in turn begged his superiors to fire at the ship to disable it or board the vessel but was unable to get a response other than vague excuses, as it would turn out the Citadel defence fleet was afraid to open fire on a human vessel within it's own space regardless of weather or not it was human owned – and with the various vessels of the PHU fleet in system it could be viewed as an assault on a human vessel at best and the opening volleys of another war at worst.

So in the jump of logic that would forever mar his name within C-Sec but cement his future within the Spectres, Garrus Vakarian became the first Turian, and first member of C-Sec to contact the Pan-Human Navy vessels directly – and within a few short minutes he had provided every shred of evidence that he had gathered on Dr Saleon, his acquisition of stolen Meld and his experiments in turn.

Half an hour later, the lone freighter had it's engines gutted by a lone Firestorm MK-IV fighter before a local Xcom frigate docked with the vessel and Xcom marines stormed the vessel.

Dr Saleon was rudely arrested when he moved to fight off the Marines with his ill-thought notions of being able to use a Mass-Accelerator Pistol against Xcom soldiers in sealed Titan Armour, and when his lone shots succeeded in doing absolutely nothing at all – turned the weapon on himself to take his own life.

A few hours later he awoke in an Xcom holding cell after finding out first hand the type of headache an Arc Thrower can give to an unprepared Salarian nervous system.

 _A few hours after that_ Dr Saleon also discovered first hand how efficient an Xcom Magus level Psionic can be during an interrogation, with the psionic in question being able to simply read whenever the morally bankrupt scientist was giving the right or wrong answer and applying a low level application of the ability known as "Soulfire" whenever he attempted to lie.

With the PHU embassy still under construction the Xcom members in question approached the Council directly to yet again show them how blind and stupid they are for their own red-tape that almost halted bringing a known criminal to justice. Through gritted teeth the Council retorted that it was through gaps in their own security that the materials used ended up in Saleon's hands to cause the pain and grief he had done so to begin with.

With an admission on behalf of the PHU – that yes Saleon had managed to take advantage of human personnel and had committed murder to hide his own tracks, if the Citadel had acted sooner then all the evidence would have been spread evenly around the room – and the PHU ambassador before Anita Goyle but forward a note to reward the C-Sec officer who had brought everything to light.

The Commendation for Garrus Vakarian however was a complicated one at best. On the one hand he had brought a known criminal to justice, but to do so he on a technical level had committed what a breach of confidentiality at best or an act or treason at worst.

Knowing he may act outside of his remit again, and take actions outside of the red tape of his career – he could no longer be kept as a C-Sec detective and many of his superiors open distaste for his actions, the Citadel simply "borrowed" him into the rank of Citadel Spectres and allocated him the extra training required while also keeping him under a microscope so extreme that his actions where practically being monitored down to a molecular level.

While his father may not admit to liking his new status in the world, Garrus Vakarian at least felt as if he was in the place to do both a "good thing" and the "right thing" without those goals having to be against each other any longer.

At least, until today anyway.

* * *

For Nihlus Kryik and his outlook on life, it could be described as being a world of pain.

At the time, being shot in the face was a very small price to pay when the alternative was being both shot in the face and being dead.

For the first few hours he had been riding off of both Adrenaline and the thankful side effect of Geth plasma weapons, being that akin to the plasma weapons that the Pan-Human Union gave to their marines, the intense heat of the shot "cooking off" their magnetic field at short range as the plasma bolt formed into a cohesive mass in the first few meters of the shot being fired from the barrel had serves to effectively sear and cauterise his wounds at the same time, so as he lost the facial plate on the left hand side of his face and a sizeable portion of the plates along the rest of the left hand side of his face – he was still alive, and at least still able to talk.

A few hours later however, in the confines of the XCF Omaha's medical bay, shock had kicked in alongside the screaming pain that the few "Turian friendly" painkillers onboard could barely keep at bay.

He endeavoured to rest as the chief medical officer – a Dr Chakwas moved between himself and the only other resident of the medical bay at the time, a half crazed human psychic that the medical staff kept referring to as "the other Shepard" in between her bouts of apparent lucidity and sheer insanity.

Eventually however, with the addition of another apparent psychic member of the crew, Lieutenant Alenko who had somehow managed to calm the woman enough for her to be properly sedated and eventually Dr Chakwas was able to provide Nihlus with her attention once again.

Deep inside he always found something odd about the members of the Human "sub-species" known as the skirmishers – even through the train of thought that they shouldn't be referred to as a "sub-species" but rather an artificially created side evolution of humanity. Nihlus tried as hard as he could, but looking at those naturally bald foreheads and enlarged eyes he could not help but think of them as being the result of a bad "one-night stand" between a Human and a Salarian.

"How is the face feeling? Do you need anything else for the pain?" Dr Chakwas asked as she scrolled through the various pieces of his medical data on her wrist-bound Omni-Tool.

"It hurts like hell, but I've been through worse" Nihlus admitted, yet again being caught off guard by the slightly flanged nature of a Skirmishers voice.

"Well, if we can do anything more to help just let us know – but in the mean time, I have been reading through Turian medical journals and I think I may have something to help you acclimatise to your facial injuries" Dr Chakwas continued as she motioned through several pages and notes referring to the different types of surgery that could be used to replace Turian facial plates.

"I uhh . . . thank you I guess?" Nihlus admitted as he flipped through some of the pages, some of the various notes included the cloning of plates from other areas of skin, and others simply applied Medi-Gel to the wound as had been done already and leaving the scarring as it was. The last of the options was to use Omni-Gel in tandem with Medi-Gel to construct new plates onto his face directly, and the surprise that Nihlus could show on his face rippled pain through the other regions of his plates and skin.

"If I can ask? Why are you even putting the effort into researching this for me?" He asked Dr Chakwas aloud.

"First of all, I get very few opportunities to work with this kind of treatment with the exception of Corporal Jenkins and members of the crew like himself" Dr Chakwas began "And secondly, it's out of medical curiosity as well as a cultural outlook. I understand how Turians plates and their markings work within your society – we Skirmishers have a similar function in our own." With that Dr Chakwas made a small motion to the twin scarring lines that met above her nose – the chevron style pattern that indicated time spent as a soldier within the Skirmisher ranks of the Pan-Human Union.

"Lastly, I wish to see if I can heal your injuries and return the function of your plates to you" Dr Chakwas finished "If you flip along to the last page please?"

With a small flick of a finger Nihlus skimmed through the remaining pages and saw the materials that the Doctor would be using to repair the wound – the Omni-Gel would in effect be building a new plate out of exactly the same materials as the plates as the rest of his body, but with the material the PHU called "Alien Alloy" running through the new plates for strength as well as lessening the weight, and the Medi-Gel would integrate tissue and veins through the new plates as well as growing functional skin over the top, effectively giving Nihlus a living prothesis that wouldn't scar or require further treatment beyond the occasional check-up in a few years time.

After a minute or so of eventual consideration Nihlus finally spoke.

"Okay then Doctor, I give my permission . . . what do we need to do first?"

"Well, I'm going to program the auto-surgeon first to work alongside my instructions and then we will need to anaesthetise you. After that you should wake up in time for the Citadel with a new set of plates." Dr Chakwas finished with a small smile as she left Nihlus Kryik to prepare for his surgery.

* * *

Garrus Vakarian had managed to map the route from the docking arm where his Citadel aircar had docked with the Widow Embassy but the act of tracking his route and putting it into practice was unfortunately lost on him due to the internal layout of the PHU built station, he had managed to find his way to the central spire that made up the docking boons that spanned out in the various directions but actually finding which way he needed to travel was getting worse by the minute.

Internally he found himself swearing at the members of the PHU who had built this station, it was almost as if the entire place had been built to vex and confuse any non-Humans who set forth on the infernal place.

From the point of view of the Citadel Council it had been a simple swap of one Spectre for another, especially given the replacements history – but in practice it had been a move of desperation to both confirm what had happened to their previous operative whilst also using the Spectre as a method of control over whichever Xcom agent he was being assigned to.

What the replacement was not banking on however, was running into his counterpart before his predecessor was debriefed.

But there he was, dressed in his traditional black and red Turian medium armour, in full regalia with what appeared to be at first glance no wounds upon his person.

On closer inspection however, it became apparent that Nihlus Kryik had undergone some form of facial reconstruction surgery, as the plates on the left hand side of his face seemed younger than those on the rest of his face, with a faint but noticeable scar line acting as the transition between the new flesh and the old.

"Spectre Kryik . . . I genuinely was not expecting to see you up and around. I'm Garrus Vakarian, and I'm to become your replacement" Garrus started, somewhat uncomfortable to be starting the conversation, or even having to have the conversation at all.

"Don't worry Garrus, I wasn't expecting to be up and around so soon either" Nihlus replied as he raised his Omni-tool – with Garrus raising his own in turn.

The pair of Omni-tools lit briefly as the two passed identification codes and Spectre authorisation across to one another, with a digital handshake done there would only be two more tasks to complete, Nihlus's own final report and Garrus introducing himself to his new human counterpart to take on his new role.

"So, the council have denounced Saren already?" Nihlus said aloud as he watched the various pages of information align themselves across the holographic display surrounding his wrist.

"And I'm here to give the humans the authorisation to follow him across Council space and the Terminus systems if I have too." Garrus finished the thought aloud.

"Tell me something Nihlus, before I set foot on the ship? What are they like?" Garrus asked aloud as he closed his Omni-tool display.

"Hot-headed, quick to anger and full of that 'youth' the Council has supposedly lost" Nihlus replied, almost reading Garrus's mind "I think you'll get along well" he finished with a sly smile as Nihlus finished reading the last pages of information and closed his own Omni-tool down.

"As for directions? Head down the corridor I just came out of and follow that elevator up the arm from there. It's the third docked ship." Nihlus finished for Garrus "And look after yourself out there" as Nihlus walked past Garrus, giving the younger Turian a pat on the shoulder as he went.

* * *

 _ **/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

Well, that officially marks the first chapter written from the point of view of a non-human character, and from two Turians at that.

And thus, did Scythe give the backstory as to how Garrus Vakarian became a Council Spectre – by thinking outside of the box in that style he does so well.

I'll be adding in a fair few chapters from non-PHU perspectives as I go. I also have some YouTube content that relates directly to the fanfiction itself to release as I write more chapters. I just hope that doesn't chew up and spit out the links when I post them.

In the mean time, Tarrah for now.


	15. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 10

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 **..**

 **..**

 **/-/ 4th March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ /-/ Widow Nebula /-/**

 **/-/ The Citadel /-/**

* * *

Nihlus Kryrik stood at attention, for what was simply the most recent of his many meetings with the Citadel Council the overarching feeling of judgement over his actions or inactions had never truly left him considering his many years of service as a Citadel Spectre.

The newly grown and far too obvious plates on his face itched abominably, but he endeavored to ignore the grating sensations as the trio of Councillors underwent his official "debriefing" of Eden Prime, which so far – and very uncomfortably so – didn't include any of the incidents surrounding Eden Prime.

Instead the debriefing so far had focused on his actions before Eden Prime, and his observations of the Pan-Human-Union prior to his deployment.

Most blatantly, the footage he had been utterly unaware he had been recording thanks to a series of STG devised nano-probes, cameras and sensors that had been seeded upon his person by another un-named Spectre shortly before he had left the Citadel for PHU space.

Tevos and Valern sat, at either sides of a typically designed Citadel coffee table, with it's synthetic leather substitute sofas and mixture of cool white metals and slightly opaque glass while Sparatus stood across the room, in front of an array of holographic displays – recordings of the sights, sounds and encounters he had made during his short trip into PHU space.

One scene that dominated the displays where those from the Jovian shipyards – humans where well known for their cylindrical habitats and the multiple uses they put them towards, even going so far as exchanging an entire habitat to the Quarian species in exchange for the technical knowledge of their own shipwrights – but the Jupiter aligned stations had been put to one exclusive purpose by both the Pan-Human Navy and their XCOM counterparts, they where the primary shipyards of a foreign military power who had never showed any signs of stopping or even slowing down their considerable efforts into expanding their space bourne capabilities.

Nihlus himself had been impressed at the sight as he passed through from the Earth based government and civilian stations through to the more exclusive military sights, all part of a display of trust on behalf of the PHU – but that trust could only go so far, especially with a race that was technologically distinct from the council races in so many ways that their methods where often seen as paradoxical and their racial attitude was geared towards survival of the species at all costs.

So to see his own sights played back before him – the cylindrical stations that served entirely as massive hollowed out shipyards for battlecruisers, battleships, carriers and dreadnoughts that where often (at the very least) two to three times the tonnage and a multitude of scale more dangerous was not a surprise.

It was Sparatus who began what was going to be a terse dialogue.

"Would you say Nihlus, based on what you have seen and what you have experienced – that the PHU is preparing for a prolonged, interstellar war?"

There was no avoiding the question or the subject – when it came to the facts and motives of the only "other" sovereign power in the galaxy they had always been clear about how they felt and their external policies – only the terminus systems could match the PHU in sheer economic might, but they where fractured and displaced into a multitude of either local or system based powers with as many outgoing opinions as there where stars in the skies.

"From my experience, and from every prior experience that the Pan-Human Union has ever given us. I will say, yes."

Nihlus paused for breath before he continued.

"Yes they are preparing for a prolonged interstellar war, but not with us, as I believe that is what the council fears."

"Continue" Valern cut in with a snapshot reaction typical of his Salarian heritage.

"I was unaware of my presence being used as an excuse for espionage, so the footage you see and the following interactions as well as the reports I had made through the following weeks leading to Eden Prime should act as a suitable backdrop for their racial as well as governmental outlook. It is my belief that they, as a culture believe what they have always told us since our official first contact."

"Their theory regarding the Prothean extinction as well as the Citadel, Correct?" This time it was Tevos who continued the conversation.

"Yes – information gathered from their own Prothean beacon as well as their cultural heritage, their own first and second wars against the alien incursion they know as the Ethereals" Nihlus answered.

"During this time, did you at any point find your diplomatic status blocked or revoked? What was their base attitude towards yourself?" Tevos asked in turn.

"For myself?" Nihlus shifted his weight uncomfortably on his feet, he was used to being used as a weapon – a scalpel for the Citadel Councils will, his personal opinions and experiences beyond his operations and their outcomes didn't often come into play.

"For myself, and as a general extension of the Council races? They view us as naïve and unprepared for what they generally consider to be a guaranteed event. As a culture they are not ashamed to admit how much they had lost, how much they had taken from them and in that regard I would view them as being close to the Krogan."

A ripple of uncomfortable tension crossed the room, the Krogan had been a miracle given form during the Rachni wars. Their hardiness, quick breeding times and general attitude to violence made them invaluable for driving the insect hordes that threatened to annihilate the council centuries ago but they had been uplifted from their own series of nuclear horrors on their home-world and their reward of garden worlds after the conflict had eventually turned their natural gifts into another uncontrolled wave of violence and terror in the Krogan rebellions, which in turn had resulted in the Genophage.

The rest as they say, is Galactic history.

"What I would say makes Pan-Humanity different from the Krogans however is a drive to not only reclaim what they lost during their occupation but cherish and protect it. While they view us as being short sighted, naïve and to be blunt – rather stupid in our assumptions on the Protheans, the Citadel and galactic history – they genuinely seem to both want to protect and maintain as much as they can, and while their main focus is on their own species I would like to draw your attention to what I believe is shortly after their piece of footage, approximately fifteen minutes or so."

Sparatus nodded, and the holographic footage of half-built fleets passed by as the gas giant slowly rotated and an even larger construction project was brought into view.

It seemed that for all intents and purposes – that the PHU engineers had taken one of their trademark stations and upscaled it by at least a factor of two, it was an almost completed station almost ten kilometres long that had been adapted in multiple ways, featuring a series of Ram-scoops across the front to collect interstellar gases and particular matter, multiple arrays for cyclic mass effect shielding as well as the trademark outer bulbous sections of PHU energy shielding – and a massive Mass Effect core and gravity wave generator on the rear.

"This, is one of their publicly advertised projects – one we knew about partially from their diplomatic channels as well as well as their civilian populace. They are calling it the "Andromeda Initiative" and that, is indeed a vessel which they are building to travel through intergalactic space. A one way trip for any member of the PHU, of any species – to start a new home in the Andromeda galaxy."

It was Tevos who replied once again "We knew of this project Spectre Kryik – but had been unaware of the scale of the project. Do you believe they are sincere in their motives? Do they believe they can actually achieve such a feat?"

"As far as they view the project – it is something that they _have_ to achieve, regardless of the cost. As with everything else I have ever seen with the PHU mindset, survival is the only alternative to extinction."

"Then I guess that concludes the first half of their debriefing, thank you Spectre Kryik" Valern finished on Tevos's Behalf.

The holograms then shifted rapidly – several sections where missing, either due to the nullification of the unknown bugs that had been on his person or alternate interference but Nihlus soon found himself seeing through his own experiences onboard the Omaha, overhearing conversations with the crew – the hot drop onto Eden Prime as well as the second hand recording of the PHU marine transmission that had begun the declaration of the PHU/XCOM "Winter Contingency" and call to arms for the colony.

Then the events that followed.

Nihlus and his drop into hostile territory.

The Skyranger's and their own drops onto Eden Prime.

The Geth and their wholesale assault on anything that wasn't remotely a part of their loose coalition of networks and units.

The bizarre return of the species that the PHU had labelled "Vipers" but as cybernetically altered husks of their former selves.

Finally, Saren – and his traitorous actions against a fellow Spectre, Nihlus himself. The gunshot that reverberated through the room and the actions of the PHU troops that saved his life and the resultant destruction of the colony.

"Where it not for your own evidence, even if it was supplied unwillingly. As well as the donated helmet camera footage of the PHU forces ground-side we would never have believed it – but Saren has gone rouge" Sparatus this time provided the commentary "As you know, we have already negotiated with the PHU to provide another Spectre for their own operation, to attempt to take him in alive and discover his motives – Spectre Vakarian"

"Yes, we met briefly before and again today"

"Well Spectre Kryik – as we have been revoking his Spectre status he has been disavowed as an enemy of the Citadel council and will be brought to justice by both yourself and many other Spectres whom we have marked for the task but with his own considerable networks, exterior intelligence and apparent alliance with the Geth this is obviously going to prove difficult."

Nihlus felt that there was about to be a mission on the table, it was just a case of waiting for the dramatics to be placed aside.

"One of Saren's known allies both in actions and attitude was a Matriarch – Matriarch Benezia to be precise. Saren's attitude towards the PHU was mostly in part to their actions towards his brother during the Second contact war, but Benezia has been known since the PHU rejected entry into the council for her attitudes towards PHU being almost like lost and wayward children in need of guidance – an attitude many Asari unfortunately share regarding many races" Tevos started to place the story into pieces.

"Some months ago it would seem the pair started to exchange correspondences, and then made multiple meetings which are now only coming into light – it would seem the both of them have been pouring heavy amounts of both political pressure and significant levels of credits into a series of biogenetic corporations on Noveria, which we have issued Spectre Vakarian with a dossier thereof for a combined Spectre, PHU and XCOM operation but what we require is insight because a pattern has emerged from some of their other operations"

The holograms shifted once again – Saren pouring cash into what seemed to be Shadow Broker backed hints of Prothean data Caches and Ruins long before the events of Eden Prime, Intel that had been long disregarded due to it's sheer absurdity that he had somehow managed to either claim or build a dreadnought scale vessel for his own personal use, which would seem to be of apparent Geth manufacture – as well as financial information of Benezia's, moving mercenary groups into certain positions, buying arms and munitions on backwater planets and then moving them into more clandestine operations.

Until the light had been brought upon these actions, no one would have questioned the actions of a well known Matriarch or a Spectre – these would have been business operations, money moving hands, investments and securing of assets, be they monetary or material.

But with genuine hostility being played out across the galaxy, it would seem that not only where both parties working together – but both of them had been placing the resources across council space and the terminus for a small but respectable army.

"What we need is Saren – preferably alive to find out what the spirits he has planned, especially given that his actions could have sparked a war" Sparatus continued "And if we can't have him, we need the next best thing – Benezia. To get to her however, we have formed a plan – we need to you extract her daughter from her current archaeological dig on Therum and bring her to safety here on the Citadel, in the hopes that her daughter can both provide further insight into her mothers actions and motives, as well as bringing her mother herself out of hiding." Sparatus continued the briefing.

"Interesting plan, and a family link often works – where are we pulling the Intel from?" Nihlus questioned.

"From one of Benezia's last public accounts – apparently she paid a well known Krogan mercenary a considerable sum to track down Liara and bring her home. So making use of our resources here, we simply paid him more to become a part of your own operation." Sparatus finished as the face of a well known Krogan Urdnott Wrex appeared amongst the holograms alongside gathered intelligence and further linked files.

"Make use and haste of any and all resources you can Spectra Kryik – Even working alongside the PHU we need every advantage we can gather" Valern said in turn.

"You will find Urdnott Wrex waiting for you within the Spectre offices of C-Sec – what you do from there is as always, up to you. That will be all." Tevos finally finished, and with that Nihlus Kryik turned and left the Presidium office.

* * *

 **/-/ 4th March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/**

 **/-/ Omega Station /-/**

* * *

On one side of the galaxy events where rolling into place, diplomatic wheels being greased and individuals moved into positions where they could ply their skills – even without their knowing as to the pattern of the cycle that they where playing a part within.

On the other side of the galaxy however, four very specific individuals where plying their own skills to another set of very specific problems.

The first problem was a lack of a base of operations.

The second problem was a lack of information.

The third problem was a lack of funds to ply towards the previous two.

For two of those individuals, the Warlock and the Avatar – picking out targets who would not be missed in a station as vast as Omega and their various levels of gangs, mercenary groups and low lives.

For a start, any single group or cell linked to the two major powers known as Eclipse, Talons or Blood pack needed to be outright ignored – they where simply too high profile to be attacked for any of their warehouses or assets, even staging a proxy war between the groups with the Warlock or Avatar's considerable psionic ability would raise too much attention to a task that needed finesse and subtly.

In the end it was one of the lower level extortionist slave rings that formed the target of the groups combined actions.

The Batarian Hegemony in it's self imposed exile still needed vast quantities of slaves to keep it's perpetual wheels of industry turning, either as mass labour or as entertainment, or even household slaves – and although Aria T'loak's few rules of Omega actively forbade the transition of slaves through her station, it did not however forbid the offices and headquarters of said slaver groups from setting up shop in the various labyrinths of the station.

As a result, the shuttle had docked with Omega after hours of switching between local FTL, relay travel and psionic jumping to avoid detection – the shuttle simply appeared on station manifests and the vaguely titled "officials" in charge of Omegas comings and goings simply forgot the small craft even existed with a small psionic nod and the four had disappeared into the foundations of the station to collect local intelligence and make their combined move.

The combination of information, assets and plans had begun hours ago – as the Hunter had begun long range surveillance of the site whilst his assassin sister had used her own skills to bend light around herself to become invisible to both sight as well as most modern methods of detection.

After short hours of location assessment, the memorisation of guards and their patrol routes alongside the localised hacking of the Omninet to hide their imminent assault from any unforeseen detection methods the eldest of the trio of siblings began his move by forcing his psionic manipulation of the ether into physical form.

For the first time since the second Ethereal War – the Warlock was pushing his abilities to summon and create Spectral armies of half translucent creations that began to assault the outer lines of the Batarian held facility.

The initial assault claimed both the most casualties and the most confusion – the Batarian guards having never seen the Codex records of Humanities twin wars against the Ethereals and thus, never seeing the many recorded battles between the Warlock and his foes, where caught completely unaware of the threat posed by these illusionary ghosts. By the time the Batarians raised their weapons to even threaten or open fire against their enemies, they started to explode with psionic energies that fried electronics and charred flesh from bone.

Within minutes however, the sheer mass of his conjured forces began to arrive – with no limits placed upon him by the Elders any longer he found he could simply continue to conjure and conjure as many of these pawns as he wished, and what began as a surprise attack swiftly turned into wave based warfare unlike anything which the Batarian slavers had ever seen.

This moment was precisely when both the Hunter and the Assassin began their attacks.

A cacophony of shots rang out across empty air as three Batarian guards who had been providing saturation fire against the psionic waves of foes where dropped, the first with a shot to the neck and then directly through his upper left eye. The unknowing soul dropped in a shower of blood as two seconds later the next Batarian dropped with a shot placed directly between all four of his eyes.

Then the next.

And the next.

Grinning down the sights of his rifle the Hunter took his usual grim pride in his work, the prey had never seen him coming (due in no small part to his brothers distraction) and the entire Batarian line was falling into disarray.

"Heh" he chuckled to himself as he lowered his rifle and prepared to grapple across to the next position "Just like old times . . . "

As the Hunter shot along his grapple line the few outer guards that remained where running towards the central warehouse – their positions lost and those that where not in complete rout had already ceased their activities amongst the living.

As fists pounded against the metal of the doors, crossed with cries of panic and the shrieks of pain and death – the security guards within watching the chaos unfold from the safety of their monitor screens, utterly unaware that they had been joined by another some time ago and she had been waiting, alone and invisible to their sight and waiting for this precise moment.

Two silent, precise motions unsheathed her blades.

The swords had been the question of many levels of research from various XCOM teams through the years – but having never managed to kill the Assassin like her brothers (and even then only the Hunters own items of war had been recovered) the questions regarding the non-terrestrial metallic elements and how they flowed and ebbed within the psionic projection of the blade to a molecular level of sharpness was one that was often asked – but the technologies had never been created beyond the evidence of the Assassin herself and recordings of her using the blades in battle, changing their own length and even mass as a whim to cut through every known defence from combat BDU's to alien alloy based powered armour and even fully fledged combat vehicles such as a resistance salvaged M1 Abrams tank.

The only thing that had been known as a certainty – is like the samurai of ancient Earth lore – once the blade had been unsheathed it could not be returned again without tasting blood.

A silent footstep later she was stood directly behind the two awaiting beings, the Batarian security guards who held stay at their stations regardless of the horrors outside.

"Second unit, prepare to open the gates – first and third units bring the mechanised units through once they open. Fire at will." One Batarian spoke throatily into a headset microphone as the monitors gave vision over what looked like a pair of flattened brown camouflage wedges hovering off the ground, each with a stub of a mass accelerator turret at their apex, around each of these hovering vehicles amassed a squad of fully armed and armoured Batarian troopers – the real heart of the slavers operations being these occasional elements of the Batarian State Arms or even the Batarian armed forces themselves would make routine "meetings" and "advisory" sessions where they would arm and train their officially non-sanctioned slaving operations as a means to field test new equipment and vehicles against live fire situations without having to push through the effort of doing so themselves.

If the slavers where successful, then BSA or the armed forces had the data they needed to refine and mass produce their weaponry as well as the slaves needed to grind the gears of their empire.

If they all died – then little was lost beyond the production of a few off-hand prototypes that could not be traced back to any official manufacturing source.

As the gates opened the twin wedge like vehicles opened fire with the whine of compressed mass accelerator fire against friend and foe alike as both Batarians and psionic projections where ripped to shreds, which was when the purple shreds of psionic illusion fell away from her form like falling petals as she both thrust and swung with the blades in her hands.

The guard on the right – had his skull perforated by the shorter of the two blades, entering his head at the base of the skull just above the tip of the spinal column and exiting just between the two of his right eyes.

The guard on the left had a slash that ran the entire path from just below the right ear and up through the skull and exiting above the left ear. There was no dramatic moment where the two halves slid apart, the kinetic force of the strike simply split the two halves with a wet splutch of a sound and the body fell forward into spasms as the other blade was withdrawn from his former comrades skull and he two entered into the muscular spasms that followed their deaths.

As freshly cooled blood arced across the displays, the soldiers within the warehouse had finished their own grim task – both friend and foe alike had been annihilated by the indiscriminate fire and where now asking for further instructions.

"Control – area has been sterilised. Please advise?" A Gruff and flanged Batarian voice asked over their comm network as the first of a new wave of sniper shots rang out across the distance and separated the unfortunate alien from his forehead.

Then another shot, and another body fell – the soldiers aligned themselves to provide suppression fire against their long range attacker as something they could never have foreseen caught them utterly sideways.

The Warlock, having long ago abandoned his distant position of sending wave after wave of psionic abominations at the enemy – now had himself in a position to one side where he could see his enemy _but they could not see him_ as tendrils of psionic energy washed across his form – he forced his mind, his sheer will at the Batarians in front of him and dominated them.

Mind Control.

To be able to utterly subsume and eventually consume another's entire personality and core of being and force it to do any number of actions, normally against their will – in many cases overriding loyalty, emotions and even self preservation as they did so.

It was brutally swift. Once inside the head of the proclaimed leader the Warlock stripped him of all assets of memory, of personality and torched the Batarians brain into a singular purpose – killing.

With a snap of the wrist the assault rifle that had been held at ease was raised directly at the temple of his subordinate and before anyone had even realised what had begun the mass accelerated shards of metal had passed directly through the kinetic barrier, being within point blank range and through the toughened alloys of his helmet. Three rounds fired with one dead Batarian.

A moment later as the confusion began, the same commander unhooked and primed a grenade – throwing it directly at one of the heat outlet vents of the twin vehicles before diving in the opposite reaction, firing as he went.

Gunfire erupted across the room as the grenade that had been hastily flung detonated inside the vehicles kinetic barrier and turned the external vents into a mash of shredded metal and components – the crafts onboard computer going into automatic shutdown rather than risking a catastrophic overheating or even breach of it's core.

As that vehicle whined in protest as it's internal functions shut down – the second vessel was being used as cover for the soldiers who where confused and moving fast against their former leader into action as another grenade slid across the floor beneath the second IFV.

This blast, buffeted against the craft's external barriers forced a shock wave beneath it and threw several of the soldiers off their feet.

Seconds later, as their bodies hit the floor – the rhythm of combat was interrupted by the now familiar crack of the Hunters sniper rifle as a series of shots erupted from somewhere above and beyond line of sight and Batarian heads or torsos erupted into fountains of violence and gore.

Levelling out from the blast that rippled through it's underside shields the second IFV turned it's turret as fast as it's internal mechanisms would allow and unleashed a flurry of shots at what had been the Hunters location as the crew from the first IFV opened their hatches and emerged with their SMG's in hand.

Only to meet face to face with the decloaking form of the Assassin, imposing and victorious at her nine foot tall stance, Shotgun in hand.

Two thunderous roars ended their attempts at resistance with a wet and bloody pulp as the pair of crewmen where turned into nothing more than meat.

As she turned, to close to be at risk from the second vehicles turret inclination she unloaded the remainder of the rounds within the roaring weapon at nearly point blank range, each blast accounting for slithers of alien alloy, psionically infused metals, elerium shards and untold amounts of heavy metals and volatiles.

With the last round of methodically designed buckshot the IFV's shields finally abandoned their purpose and dropped with a distinct high pitched pop sensation that snapped the air with Ozone and charged particles.

With the final crescendo about to play out the Warlock made his appearance public at last, psionic voracities of energy swimming around his head, arms and hands as he tore the edges of conventional reality asunder and threw a Null Lance through the IFV – killing the occupants before they had even realised what was happening, their bodies dropping as what many would consider their essence of being, or perhaps their souls ripped from their bodies and shredded into nothingness.

With a coughing wretch of death the IFV's systems shut down without a controller to direct them any longer, which was when their master finally appeared.

Still clad in the black and Gray armour with it's purple LED highlights the AVATAR body walked serenely through the chaos, as it approached it spilled a form of essence around itself akin to an entropic field – flesh and bone withered away to dust as all evidence of the corpses where simply brushed away, leaving nothing behind as evidence except for spent weapons, empty armour, and bullet holes.

As the Hunter arrived behind their leader the three Chosen watched as the AVATAR walked through the warehouse and finally reached what could have been called a command centre, a series of servers, consoles and hastily gathered processors that contained the details of this slaver group, their identities, their targets, their objectives and most important of all.

Their pay.

Making use of the abundance of Omnitools now dotted throughout the empty building the AVATAR went through several motions of setting up new bank accounts for every single name on the payroll, then copying those identities to a dozen hundred other locations throughout Batarian space, the Terminus systems and Omega itself before then using the logged authorisation details to fake several hundred payments for operations that had not yet happened or never existed – draining the Slaver groups primary account into the now thousand or so separate accounts and then redirecting the flow of cash through various stock markets, subsidiary accounts and face companies.

Creating a new blank account for itself and it's compatriots it continued to write and run scripts that directed and accumulated the embezzling of the organisations assets halfway through the galaxy before redirecting them back (in a digital sense) to Omega once more after making any investigation attempts take an obscene amount of time.

With a few logging of fake details the deft hands of the Avatar body had created a fake security firm logged with various corporate bodies on Illium but based within Omega and named it as such -

"Firefly Operations LTD"

Taking inspiration from a lesser known Sci-fi film from the early 2000's, no security company would ever record the loss of their own pay as it would make them appear weak – in the same vein, no respectable slavers would ever do the same.

Not that there where any survivors to report a loss of earnings regardless.

With various funds being directed and redirected halfway across the galaxy and credit chits and bank accounts being filled, the first and last AVATAR removed their mask.

After what had seemed like an endless repetitive eternity inhabiting the same form it had never had the opportunity to remove the mask that obscured the face beneath.

Knowing that the Ethereals never had a purpose for gender or appearance and prior autopsies on the same beings it had already known about the androgynous properties of the body and it's features, being able to pass as either male or female was however only a side effect of genetic design rather than an intentional effect on their behalf.

Looking on at it's face it could see both the advantages and disadvantages of it's form – but a few traits would need to be removed or concealed to further it's plans.

First off, the stark white hair that seemed to oppose gravity itself would need to either be mastered or removed – dying the follicles would never be successful as many of it's former troops in XCOM had attempted such an act to hide the bone white hair that somehow became linked with growing psionic potential and failed as most dyes would somehow burn away at a molecular level within 48 hours.

But a shaved head and a variety of wigs would go a long away in ensuring some protection of identity.

The next hurdle to overcome would be the glowing purple iris's, which could be covered with various shades or tints of modern contact lenses.

The next few steps would require a tailor, and a good one – who could give a full variety of wardrobes for four, three of whom where nine feet tall and with no link to any other species, with no questions asked.

Passers by and those of whom little time could be spent, their memories could be selectively erased or convinced they didn't actually see what they had thought they had seen.

A longer meeting, with someone who would have to remember specific details? To remove those kinds of memories would require the messy level of thought editing that left marks, and often the recipient would have been better off dead.

A few local Extranet searches turned up some interesting details – such as passed conversations and comments from various low level gangs and mercs regarding Aria T'loaks so called "Personal Tailor" whom it appeared was an Asari Matriarch simply known as Tamara.

If _"her"_ skills where good enough for the self-identified ruler and pirate queen of Omega, then they would be good enough for the resurrected commander of such a well known organisation.

The Chosen Hunter huffed from somewhere behind them, as the last of the vast and mostly automated embezzlements of cash came to an end (and another day as per normal on Omega) it came to the conclusion that it needed a name, knowing it could never retake it's old identity it thought for a moment again on it's lasting legacy. Both Incarnations of the XCOM project.

Drifting through the back of it's mind was the emblem text of _Vigilo Condifo_ which settled for a moment before the deft hands finally gave the identity a name which it would adopt and from there try it's hardest to continue it's legacy through the shadows.

"Virgil"

* * *

 _ **/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

Okay – it has been almost two months since my last update due to a combination of both mental health reasons and myself getting a new job (wooo) which gave me plenty of time to think about what to write next but not enough time to actually write it down.

In reply to my commenters – I do thank you for your feedback guys, in particular.

Bearmauls – thanks for your feedback on the merging of the two canons. Trying to tie in the DLC material was to generally try and flesh everything out was one of the bigger challenges for me, especially with the whole faction government system of the Pan-Human Union (which hasn't been seen yet) and the backdrop of a civilization that has basically had every facet of culture and history ripped away.

As for COIL based weaponry -vs- Plasma based weaponry and their effect on shields, the general direction I've been trying to lead with this is with Elerium cells and Plasma weapons there is an effective roof to how much kinetic and thermal force you can put into a shot before you either melt the weapon or turn it into a one shot per cell setup, while COILguns with their elerium powercells, separate ammunition and mass effect based miniaturisation technologies basically became more powerful in the pre-second contact period and where brought back into favour once more.

Also, thanks for noticing the B5 reference. ;)

Djmegamouth – the general idea is to the Council Humanity and the side species are viewed as being backwards, overly proud and paranoid – they have no evidence beyond what the PHU and XCOM "Claim" and no reason to believe them given 2500 of recorded history and no major signs or portents and very little in the way of actual wars other than the Rachni wars or the Krogan rebellions.

They've adapted some of the PHU/XCOM recommendations out of common sense, the rest have been ignored on the grounds of being so outlandish they could not possibly be true.

Guest – sorry about the 5 CODEX chapters, the setup I made was to try and draw in readers – then introduce them to the world before re-entering it and telling the story. I have thought about ways in which I could split things up and still have them make sense, but I haven't come up with a decent way to do it yet.

Phantomdancer15 – here is another chapter, all 18 pages of it. I hope you enjoyed.

OMAC001 – I know you are hiding out there somewhere, I hope you enjoyed this one also.

As for everyone else out there who has favorited and followed the story – thanks to all of you, I look forward to anyone else out there who wants to send me feedback as it is read and appreciated. Even though English is my primary language I do make mistakes and a Beta reader would be appreciated also, but until then . . .

Tarrah for now.


	16. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 11

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 **/-/ 4th March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Widow Nebula /-/**

 **/-/ Crew Quarters of Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/**

* * *

It had not taken long after Garrus had boarded the Omaha for his Omnitools systems to be tentatively tied into the Omaha's onboard AI system which in turn gave him the directions he needed to move around the vessel.

Even given his Spectre status and the severity of the mission however, he was not surprised to find that large portions of the Omaha's internal layout was blacked out from his access – classified as being above his clearance level and represented as blacked out sections with the ghost of internal deck layouts shown within them.

He was surprised to find however that at least some sections of the ships armoury, barracks, bridge, mess halls and training areas where open for him and after a brisk walk around the areas of the ship that had been open to him; he settled into the semi-satisfaction of knowing his way around and that the PHU/Xcom crew where just as professional as any number of Turian crews he had spent a large chunk of his lifetime working around and within.

Without wanting to further spend time with eyes over his shoulder plates however, he opted to move down to crew quarters level and logged himself into the crew rota before finally settling down into what many Turians would consider a rarity, or at the very least – the wasted luxury of his own small room with desk, chair, bunk and storage spaces and a small combined toilet and shower space behind a door at the rooms far end.

He sat for a moment on the bunk and with the memory foam adapting to his weight (armour and all) before opening his Omnitool once again and finding to his surprise that he had already been allocated shifts onboard, alongside his counterpart the yet unmet "Commander Shepard".

Mulling this over for a moment, he then noticed the secure holster just next to the head rest of his bunk – normally used for the safe storage of an Xcom issue Coil pistol, it had been adapted for the storage of his Armax Brawler pistol which was more than a little disconcerting because of the fact that although he had come onboard the ship armed (with permission as per his Spectre status) he had not informed anyone of his equipment, let alone spoken to a quartermaster or requisitions officer.

Unlatching the magnetic holster on his leg, he moved the pistol from one hand to the other before reaching down and gently pushing the weapon into place with a soft click, as two small latches secured the pistol in place. Unclipping the two points the pistol pushed up from it's secured point and into his waiting hand.

"Hrm, useful . . . just _slightly_ creepy" he spoke to himself as he re-attached the pistol to his side holster.

Moving around the room he found an additional set of racking for his Punisher sniper rifle, another Armax weapon he hadn't knowingly signed into the vessels storage or ID systems, which held the Turian assembled weapon vertically above what appeared to be a stack of factory fresh Turian armour power cells, some form of Turian specific first aid kit and a series of Omnigel and Medigel pods.

Placing the last of his personal effects into storage before settling in to review the operational details and what little Intel was available for his coming destination on Noveria.

* * *

 **/-/ 4th March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/**

 **/-/ Omega Station /-/**

* * *

For all of the skills Virgil's new body had given him, one of the unfortunate truths of being "outside" of conventional reality for as long as he had been was the downside of utterly unused vocal chords. It had taken many uncomfortable hours of downloading phonetic teaching programs for children of both Human and Asari backgrounds just to get the basics of being truly able to "talk" in English once again, and a very rough attempt at an Asari "Hello".

By the time Virgil felt truly comfortable with his ability to communicate once more several hours had passed and the first true conversation between siblings was taking root.

"You know . . . it may have been what? 160 years? But I remember you being more talkative than this." The Hunter began with his usual sarcastic snide as he slowly cleaned whatever he could clean off of his Darkclaw pistol "Even if it was the utterly mad ravings of a half-mad Psychic"

The attempt to rile the Warlock however fell far shorter than his brother would have liked, as the eldest of the three sat cross legged on the far side of the room, eyes closed and breathing slowly in meditation.

The assassin however continued to pace backwards and forwards throughout the room and the surrounding corridors akin to a predator searching for her next meal and returning eternally disappointed.

"And I remember the time my blade last tasted your throat . . . " She growled as she passed between the pair of them " . . . You should silence yourself before it does so again"

"If it isn't my beloved sister" The Hunter began with his typical shark like grin "And how are you on this _fine_ day? Or night? How can you even tell in a place like this?"

"At least we can agree that this place riles the both of us" was all the Assassin offered in reply.

"Well if neither of you are in the mood to be talkative" The Hunter allowed those words to take root in the air for just a moment "I think I might try my hand at a hunt, one of those Krogan should give me a run for my money . . . or maybe a pistol fight with a Vorcha? Apparently they are thicker than bricks but they heal from almost anything"

"You will do no such thing" The Warlock finally entered into the mental sparring of the conversation, so say the trio had never liked each other much was an understatement. They had all been created as the Elders chosen, to be placed above all others apart from the Elders themselves, but from the very afterglow of consciousness they had been both allies and enemies – forced to both cooperate and compete for the goals their masters set for them and the rewards placed before them.

A world they could now never even hope to claim, and the gift of continued existence and the Elders favour.

As the Warlock rose to his feet he began to lay out the tones of what they already knew, but where both to afraid to put into words.

"I have tested my gifts and my spirit and the Elders cannot be found, the stars have been emptied of their touch."

"And in their place the vile Humans have taken their place – _yes we know that brother_ " The Assassin hissed in return.

"Then you have also felt that our own powers have grown? It would seem the void is not without it's mercies. Even I as the Elders greatest and most powerful Champion have never felt such _raw firmament_ flowing through my veins"

The Hunter sighed and rolled his eyes, he had always been closest to the edges of the Elders control – with enough free will to circumvent it and flout his independence but never enough to truly escape it. _To him the Elders had always simply gotten in the way_ and his siblings had either been mad, dangerous or am distasteful combination of both.

"I will admit to having more depths to my abilities yes" The Assassin replied as even the Hunter had to begrudgingly nod his head at that statement.

"To say this is all to convenient would be an understatement" The Hunter sighed sarcastically "But considering the destroyers are almost here I suppose we can work together to pull something out of this."

He shifted on his feet and looked across to the door where Virgil was still in the depths of practising linguistics.

"It's not like we have much choice considering who brought us back regardless . . . " He finished as he looked back across to his siblings.

"Yes . . . it would seem that the universe is not without it's sense of irony" The Warlock finished for his brother "But considering the stakes, for _him_ to bring _us_ back and bind us to _his_ will means we are needed, and to have one purpose is better than none"

"So with a new life comes new bedfellows. Glad you have your priorities sorted out" The Hunter shot in reply.

" _ **SILENCE YOUR TOUNGE YOU WHEL-!**_ " The Warlock raged, and at that moment Virgil approached the doorway and the argument was silenced before it began.

"We are leaving" said the untested voice of Virgil "and you are to accompany me"

With that – the four horsemen left their new base of operations and departed into the thronging streets of Omega.

* * *

 **/-/ 4th March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Widow Nebula /-/**

 **/-/ The Citadel /-/ Primary Shipyards /-/**

* * *

On the "Civilized" side of the Galaxy Spectre Nihlus Kryik was in the midst of the bold undertaking of bureaucracy, despite being held to no other powers than the Citadel Council in and of itself he still found himself having to go through far to many channels if he wanted to secure any field assets in advance such as supplies, munitions, ships or troops.

Thankfully at least one of those assets had been allocated from the start – the vessel he was currently securing supplies for long term deployment for, the first of a new breed of vessels to fill the gaps between what had traditionally been Frigates and Cruisers.

The Citadel Council had supplied him with what had been labelled a "Destroyer/Carrier Hybrid Test Type 01" known as the "Pinnacle of Susurrus" which was the prototype of an entirely new class of vessel built between the Turian Hierarchy and Salarian Union after the Second Contact war/Incident at Relay 314.

The Susurrus was twice as large and then given generously more tonnage over any normal Frigate class vessel – ranging at almost 500 meters over the normal 200 of a standard Citadel Frigate class vessel and was built from a vastly oversized superstructure of a Turian Verrikan class frigate, but given Salarian exterior curves on its wings and external structure – giving the appearance of an almost comically malnourished Manta Ray.

The vessel had been given a comically oversized Cruiser scaled Mass Effect core and was built around a series of static and heat recollection systems that in turn few back into the vessels onboard batteries and weapon arrays.

On top of that it had been given a Carrier launch bay that ran diagonally through the vessel – it's launch bays at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the decks of the ship, launching and receiving a full compliment of ten fighters and four bombers as well as two drop-ships from an exit just behind the tail and of the vessel, the entire rear end of the ship had been designed to allow the both the floor and ceiling of the bay to have their own Mass Effect plating to allow for gravity on each and therefore speed up refuels and deployments on each layer.

The cost of this expensive inclusion had meant a traditional Mass Accelerator was mutually exclusive – and so the Salarian union had (after some extensive research) opted for a brand new form of weapon system.

The Susurrus class had been designed as a reactionary move against the Pan-Human Union and their XCOM special forces branch, even though the two sides held a tentative peace – the sheer disparity of the two sides and their technological bases had caused nothing but panic and dismay for the Citadel races, and while the Turians had opted for building a new generation of Mass Accelerators which had become even more monstrously powerful than those before the Salarians had instead taken a vast level of interest in the solid state laser weapons that had been in and out of service since the inception of Humanities first contact war.

Even with the intervening years of co-operation between the PHU, XCOM and the Citadel races and the research programs that had lead the Salarians to adapt more powerful Guardian lasers than those of previous generations the two research programs ran alongside each other – the Co-operative research program between the Salarian and Pan-Human Unions and the secret research instigated by the STG to adapt, improve and even innovate their existing laser weapon research programs.

For centuries the races of the Citadel used Guardian lasers to defend their ships, most in the Infrared spectrum whilst the Salarians utilised Ultraviolet lasers with 6 times the range, as being able to down missiles from vast distances would offset the costs – but what interested the Salarians was how Humans 150 years before used a before unknown material, Elerium to produce handheld laser weapons in the Infrared spectrum that somehow out-classed modern interpretations including modern Ultraviolet.

As a result of this – the focus was placed on how to somehow boost the capabilities of their Ultraviolet laser systems without the need of the resource they could not find nor barter for – Elerium.

With some cross over between the two projects – the collaboration had disclosed the original Laser and Pulse Laser designs whilst the solo project had made advances in how to standardise the components, and eventually the breakthrough came from a dissembled Laser Rifle the STG had managed to secure in secret from a failed, independent Human colony.

With the material knowledge gained from the dissembled Laser Rifle and then applied to the singular program – the Salarians had discovered the refinements they needed to at least meet the material cost and power generation issues half-way.

When the Collaboration program finished, the Union had schematics for the other branch of Guardian lasers – and then the two programs pooled their knowledge.

Which the Pinnacle of Susurrus now mounted as her primary weapon.

A three barrelled Extreme Ultraviolet laser cannon, which fired as blasts of almost ionizing radiation at a range comparable with most mid-range Mass Accelerator cannons – but far faster and considerably more insidious.

Once the cannon started to spin and fire it's own heat build-up could be pushed back into it's own reserve capacitors to extend it's firing time, and once it had begun firing it could continue for up to three hours before needing to be effectively cooled. Being an Extreme Ultraviolet cannon, it's blasts would rip atoms apart unaffected by kinetic barriers and so long as the majority of the blasts hit the same location it could rip through armour, scramble electronic systems and cauterise the crew of the offending enemy vessel with impunity.

On top of this primary weapon, the hull was dotted with spherical blisters that contained smaller trios of the same weapon as their next-generation Guardian defences as well as "knife fighting" armaments once the enemy was too far within the range of the primary weapon.

The final colour scheme was a mixture of Turian Grays and Salarian Whites with a single painted yellow stripe which was horizontal across the entire hull, the end result was a one of a kind vessel quite unlike anything else currently fielded by any singular race in the Citadel Council.

From the assorted reports displayed across the myriad holographs and tablets that surrounded him within the small Spectre requisitions office, the Susurrus herself would be ready within the next two hours with the flight crews and final munitions loading two hours after that – the efficiency of an untested crew on an untested ship shining through the doubts of Nihlus and his memories of serving in the Hierarchy mechanised warfare division almost a full decade ago where he and his division could be placed from wheels down (the irony of that state when wheeled combat units had not been used for centuries) to wheels up and deployed in less than 6 hours gave him a small confidence in the projections of the mission.

Next on the agenda however was the meeting of his supplied contact mercenary Urdnot Wrex, the briefing on the coming mission and the projections from there.

Today was going to be a long day. A long day indeed.

* * *

 **/-/ 4th March 2183 /-/ Milky Way /-/ Widow Nebula /-/**

 **/-/ Medical bay of Pan-Human-Union/Xcom "Survivalist" Class Frigate "Omaha" /-/**

* * *

Doctor Chakwas sat at her desk whilst attempting to work her way through the post shift paperwork of her own, accompanied by a small glass of Serrice Ice Brandy in one hand whilst the other was rubbing the bridge of her nose as she spoke aloud into her omni-tools Dictaphone function.

"Subject has thus far shown little improvement on previous condition, despite my best attempts to diagnose and treat the symptoms of which have been displayed so far."

She paused for a moment and took a deep sip of the Brandy, appreciating the deep yet sweet burn of the blue liquid as she held it in her mouth for a moment to absorb the flavours before swallowing it down in an equally deep gulp.

"Genetically she is either identical to – or indeed is the original Master Sargent Jane Shepard Identification X-2910980 who was presumed killed in action July 1st 2019. Over the course of the last several days we have attempted to discover a baseline for her erratic behaviours and displayed traits since she arrived on the Omaha.

Thus far the displayed behaviours have shared elements of Dissociative identity disorder as well as Schizophrenia, Personality disorder, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Anxiety. During the shifts between these states there has been no unusual brain activity from passive or active scans that would normally preclude these conditions – Myself and my staff are yet to find the reasons for this anomaly, which currently makes her condition untreatable through the use of the medications I currently have access to onboard.

During the periods in which these conditions present and the behaviours displayed she has shifted between fear, panic, despair as well as confusion, aggression as well as extreme aggression as well as false beliefs we have been unable to counter.

As it stands, Jane currently believes that the year is 2019AD and has reacted aggressively, with both physical, verbal and psionic aggression towards any individual who has attempted to challenge this belief. Thankfully the injuries to staff from these incidents has been minor and treatable with onboard facilities – but due to the nature of the aggression displayed I have been forced to convert one of the Omaha's psionic chambers normally used for the training of Psionic members of the crew into a temporary ward room for Janes personal use.

Jane however, does take food and water without the need for external stimulus or promoting – so long as it is from a member of staff along the human base line, all Augmented, Psionic or Skirmisher members of my staff are to be out of line of sight and range of her considerable psionic scanning capabilities during these periods. Unfortunately this does include myself as chief medical officer but with the monitoring equipment on hand and the capabilities of my staff I trust them to follow through with my instructions and do what is best for the patient."

Chakwas sighed and took another hearty swig of the blue liquid before filling the glass once more. Holding it by the base with three fingers she watched as she slowly rotated the glass and the liquid inside flowed within, absorbing the differences in light in the deep blue fluid as she did so.

"At this moment in time, with the treatment of her conditions undergoing further research I am moving onto the reason for having to make use of the Psionic Chamber as a treatment room – her previously mentioned Psionic capabilities.

As a professional member of the scientific community as well as chief medical officer of the vessel my personal views should not be counted as either for or against the argument that the patient is indeed who she claims to be – but serious consideration should be put towards this in light of her Psionic Capabilities.

The Psionic powers of the Master Sergeant Jane Shepard X-2910980 was measured in 2019 and scaled to be those of a "Master" level Psionic, of which there have only been 39 recorded individuals since the original discovery of Psionics during the first Ethereal War.

Records from this era in time are however, erratic and often contradicting due to the destruction of the original Xcom Facility and the loss of the pioneer in their discovery Doctor Moira Vahlen. It is not known how she managed to harness and develop the abilities of the original human Psionics, nor how they managed to utilise their abilities without modern Psi-Amps developed during the second Ethereal War.

Somehow Doctor Vahlen managed to use alien technologies to take individuals with Psionic potential and express those abilities without putting the subject through exposure to Elerium, and those who had been through these processes could use their abilities beyond the uncontrolled and passive ability to read high level thoughts of those around them. These original first generation Psionics, of which Jane appears to be a member had full access to all of their abilities at all times – making the treatment of her mental well being even more complicated than a member of the traditionally known Psionic users.

If her beliefs are true and she is indeed the Original Jane Shepard then her transition from 2019 to 2183 has somehow amplified her powers well beyond those that where recorded at the time which currently make the recording and assessment of her skills near impossible with her currently displayed behaviours.

Because of this – I have already added the precaution upon every member of the staff team to make the use of Mind Shields at all times when interacting with Jane, but even these only seem to lessen the effects of her powers rather than completely negate their effects.

With this in mind, the use of the Psionic Chamber to further contain her powers is the current best course of action when interacting with medical staff as well as further protection from the rest of the cre-"

Doctor Chakwas however was cut short – unable to finish her sentence as the alarms began to blare across the medical bay and she was forced to run from her office onto the central floor alongside her fellow doctors and nurses.

"What's happening? What's the situation?!" She heard one of the senior doctors yell aloud as they reached the entrance to the corridor where the psionic chambers where stationed. The doors where sealed and the alarms blared as the sounds of footsteps could be heard – the general alarm had been raised no only across the room but across the entire ship.

"Jane was eating whilst two nurses where taking notes – she suddenly flipped out about something, something about being able to hear an alien when the doors opened for the third nurse to bring her water. Next thing we knew she used something like a mind-fray on one member of staff and then Psionically threw one member of staff into the other and across the room. I think it was Mayfair and Evans in there . . . I can't see Dee on the cameras"

Chakwas forced her way across from the door with the rest of the crowd and over to the monitor array where the other Doctor had spoken from.

On the screen, and all too ominously – Jane Shepard had walked through the open door, all three nurses where on the floor with small puddles of blood around them.

Jane stood along, seemingly tiny when dressed in nothing but a hospital set of pyjama bottoms and shift with an aura of violet Psionic power surrounding her body – she stood with her feet rooted into the floor and staring into the corner of the room with her gaze unflinching.

It took Doctor Chakwas an embarrassing number of seconds to realise what it was that was actually happening – during the entire time the former Council Spectre had been onboard Jane had either been comatose or sedated during the assessments of her health.

This time she had been awake the entire time – whilst the Turian Spectre assigned to the ship had boarded and taken quarters.

"Is there any form of Psionic damping in that corridor space?" She spoke aloud with an edge of fear in her voice.

"None, why?" Came the reply of the doctor.

"Get me a full security team down here now!" She yelled in reply "Titan armour – Mind Shields and Arc stunners!

"The bewildered doctor tapped the instructions through his Omnitool as Doctor Chakwas then barked another set of orders to the rest of the team.

"We need a full medical team to whichever room the Turian Spectre is currently in – AND WE NEED IT NOW!"

In the corridor behind the sealed blast doors, in a film of darkness and eldritch power Jane Shepard flexed her Psionic powers and forced a bridge through Alien Alloys, power conduits, wires and relays, Human and Skirmisher crew and locked her mind to kill the offending Xeno that had boarded the ship.

A sudden burst of an image however, stopped her dead before she launched the mind fray that would have ended Garrus Vakarians life through the combined horror or a stroke and seizure – her mind locked instead onto a figure, a tall figure in blue, metal and law, honour and humour and and overwhelming urge to simply " _do the right thing_ ".

This burst stopped her for long enough for the security team to burst through the blast doors – and as they did, Arc stunners where raised, shouts of compliance rang on deaf ears and lances of electrical energy ripped through the air.

Jane fell to the floor, unconscious.

It would have had more of an impact however, if her mind wasn't already elsewhere when her flesh and bone collided with the bulkhead floor in a heavy thunk.

* * *

 _ **/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

Okay, three months this time since the last update – sorry about that guys, it all came down to knowing what I wanted to write and where – but not actually having the when to perform the how.

Hopefully that has now changed.

Virgil is now out and about, he has a plan – and it will be coming into light slowly but surely throughout the story, alongside the three members of the Chosen and their development without the Ethereals to equally threaten and guide them through their actions.

I really am hoping that you guys – the readers enjoy what I have planned as the story continues as writing this section kind of felt like writing "filler" to me, setting the pieces up ready to move through to other places in the story.

Nihlus has his own "Normandy" in the "Pride of Susurrus" which I took the name from via Terry Pratchett – whom I have recently been re-reading his works. Look up Susurrus at some point if you are interested, not only do I love the word, but the contrast considering what the vessel IS and WHY it was built.

As for vessels – I had (some time ago) released a YouTube video of by original build that inspired this whole fanfiction writing shtick – the Predominance Class Frigate.

The video can be viewed here - /urauHFG277Y

If eats the link – or rejects it. Hop over to YouTube and simply search for the Predominance Class Frigate and you should find it. I'm hoping it will really ground you guys in the visual style of PHU ships as well as other changes to the ME universe with the XCOM elements introduced in it – I'm trying to take the crossed settings to their logical conclusions.

And now – for Review replies.

Notthis1 – The Chosen being buffed is something that will come up often, and be built upon, as everything in the setting will receive buffs in some way shape or form.

Chronus1326 – I love those ideas, and some of them will indeed be stolen and used in some way, shape or form. Watch this space.

Aplenwolf – Well here we have a dose of Garrus AND Insane elder Shep. More to come in the next chapter, which I've already begun writing.

As for everyone else – the obligatory thank you for reading, favoriting and following to all of you, you are all brilliant spuds you are. Until next time,

Tarrah for now.


	17. Of Avatars and Harbingers - Chapter 12

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 **/-/ 15th August 2015 /-/ Operation "Bloodied Glass" /-/**

 **/-/ Airspace over Cardiff /-/ Wales /-/ United Kingdom /-/ Earth /-/**

* * *

Garrus flexed his hand, finding himself out of physical control of the five pink and fleshy appendages that had replaced his normal three plated fingers.

The sensation of the cotton and nylon gloves against the unusually receptive and tactic nerves in his skin flooded his mind with alien feelings of fabric against smooth and utterly unknown fibres.

The Kevlar plate on the back of his hand at least provided a state of familiar being, feeling akin to one of his natural plates – except for the lack of nerves and tactile feeling.

He found himself out of control of his body, he was a passenger riding in a vessel that was moving of his own volition. His range of colours he could see, despite the red lighting of the cold metal box he found himself surrounded in felt somehow deeper yet visually separate from the range of his normal vision.

He would later discover the differences between Turian and Human eyes – but in the depths of experience and the world that was being projected upon him he found himself out of control of the body he inhabited.

Others surrounded him – 12 seats in a small aircraft that was surrounded in noise and pressure.

The word "Skyranger" drifted into his mind.

Disturbingly he did not know from where.

He was surrounded by Humans all dressed in similar coloured tan uniforms to the one he was currently wearing, and they where all in the midst of equipment checks – three carried chunky gunpowder fed assault rifles the same as his own, two with massive cannons filled with multiple barrels and deep ammunition feeds of hot leaden death.

He turned his head, for a moment he caught purchase of a small mirror to his left. Another member of the combat team was using it to apply combat make-up to their face to merge and displace their combat profile – his eyes caught the face of a young Human, pale skinned and red haired with piercing green eyes.

He didn't recognise the face in the mirror, but he knew instinctively that the human he saw was the body he was riding within as she rose to her feet an grasped the overhead handle as the Skyranger began it's final approach.

At this moment he could hear distance gunfire and the back and forth reports between Xcom Central overflight and the Raven interceptors that alongside the 14 Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4's and 10 of the UK's total number of Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II's against the 3 Alien battleships and their almost 3 dozen support craft that has descended upon Cardiff in their second terror operation.

Other memories flooded his mind in a flurry of mixed and disorganised emotions, statistics and feelings that flew in alongside them.

This was early in the war, just after the massive devastation of Newfoundland that resulted in Xcom's first detonation of a tactical nuclear device after a Chrysalid nest had been found in a remote fishing village in Canada that had annihilated two Xcom teams and threatened to become an all too literal hive for the devouring horde of alien insectoid beings.

Because of this desperate act of survival, the Xcom council had all but threatened to dissolve the project and only the lead representative of the council had manage to convince the United Nations otherwise.

In the wake of a small number of successful interceptions over a handful of airspaces and the capture of alien corpses, weapon fragments and a select number of alien power sources had given the organisation a brief reprieve.

The aliens in their usual unmeasured and massive responses had chosen to launch 17 separate offensives over the course of the last two months, ranging from their mysterious abduction style operations to outright terror and destruction across the various human bastions of civilisation that dotted the globe.

Cardiff was now caught in the crossfire of the third of these terror missions since the wars official "start" back in march 2015. August being two months before Vahlen had managed to crack the energy transfer abilities of Elerium, and another month after that Doctor Shen would finally gift the tired and besieged infantrymen and women of the only organisation capable of multinational defence against their xenobiological enemies with the first ever examples of working, man-portable laser weaponry.

This was by and far the most brutal period of the war. Man against alien, grit and chemical slug throwers against still unknown opponents with projected energy weapons, abilities that twisted and outright defied the laws of physics and a seemingly innumerate force that could drop from anywhere in the skies at any time without warning or provocation.

It would have been all to easy to lay down arms, surrender or die in what seemed like these darkest of times before the dawn could pass.

The names "Jane" and "Shepard" passed through Garrus's thoughts in a slow stream of spoon-fed facts and emotions, but without context these nuggets of clarity in a sea of confusion meant little to nothing to a confused and chronologically misplaced Turian.

Intellectually his mind somehow clicked into what was happening – in one moment he was in his bunk aboard an unfamiliar ship reading through the terse details of a coming operation and now somehow he was lodged into the point of view of another, vicariously living their memories through a means he could not even begin to understand.

Emotionally however if he had any form of control over his current surroundings he would have taken it. Turians never truly dreamt in the same way that Humans or Salarians did, their rest cycles simply being a loose barrage of emotions and images without a continuous narrative cycle that associated REM sleep. The closest a member of the Turian species came to a nightmare could have been described as a panic attack or sleep apnoea by other races, so a single defined stream of sounds, smells, sights, tactile feelings and even the taste of the sweat in the air of the alien aircraft was beyond even the worst of his ever imagined nightmares.

If Garrus had even unconscious control over his heartbeat in this moment it would have threatened to either explode out of his chest or go directly into arrest out utterly uncontrolled and eldritch terror.

An explosion ripped through the air outside the thin titanium hull of the skyranger, powerful enough to rock the craft and hear the ricochet of fragments, the only remains of its airframe and the airman who once piloted it shot off the skin of the craft in a fireball of plasma and burnt jet fuel.

This was perhaps the only moment that Jane could instil any level of moral before they skyranger landed and boots it dirt.

"There's a lot of people down there dying while we gathered our strength!" She shouted, through the mouth that Garrus felt – the mouth that was his body "They wondered if we where ever coming to save them! Friends, Family. Parents and Children! This isn't their fight, but they are buying us time with their lives!"

She felt the gaze of her fellow soldiers burning into her as she shook against the ebb and flow of the skyranger and the forces around it.

"We need to stand together! The Aliens won't stop at Cardiff! The aliens will slaughter every Human being they find if we don't stop them! GO OUT THERE AND GIVE THEM HELL! YOU WHERE BORN TO DO THIS!"

A chorus of "OORAHS!" bounced around the skyranger as she fist-pumped to her squad against her chest.

"Be ready to die XCOM! Anything less? And you are already dead!" she finished as she turned and face the rear drop-door as the skyranger dropped and twisted on it's axis and prepared to unload the 12-strong group into the midst of hell.

The moment the rear doors dropped the scent of burnt flesh and worse still as the group ran to their positions with grace and well trained precision, their rifles, shotguns, cannons and pistols raised in offence as they took in the sight of the open space surrounding the first of many sights of a devastated Cardiff laid around them from the Millennium Centre on the left hand side, surrounded by what looked like all too literal walls of flame, death and destruction.

As she rushed forth with her own rifle raised she caught the sight of the dog-tags laced into the back of the armour just above the neck or one of her fellow troopers. He was Spanish, thickly build with tanned skin, defined muscles and thick black and curled hair. The name "Perez" danced through both Janes and Garrus's thoughts as images, the briefest flashes of lust and emotions rampaged through to an affectionate level, memories of lust and passion – skin against skin combined with sweat and orgasmic pleasure.

Followed by an enormous crash of regret and remorse.

Without being told Garrus instantly knew that he would not survive the coming storm, few XCOM soldiers at this stage of the war would be lucky to make it through more than 5 missions before being killed, and Perez was on his third. Garrus knew as much as the form of Jane knew in hindsight that nothing could be done to avoid this fate but watch as Perez died, instantly and violently in the coming onslaught.

The white-water rapid slash of emotion was cut short as a trio of fast movers, fighter jets from lord knows where roared through the sky at their minimum combat floor pulling the air behind them in a streak of kerosene and violence. Jane swore for just a moment she could see the pilots and gunners within their cockpits as they pulled up towards the alien vessels and their enduring suspension in the sky before they launched a volley of missiles which impacted uselessly against the technological arrogance of their shields.

As her eyes skimmed the horizon Jane could see the beginnings of a sunrise over the battle as they rushed from their landing zone and into cover. Burnt out police cars and vans dotted the area surrounded by even more corpses – mostly unrecognisable due to the after effects of plasma burns with their horrifying effects.

Corpse after corpse of civilians, police officers and armed police with missing heads, limbs or simply charred or slurried meat.

Many loved ones would find out much later that they would be left without bodies to bury – because their enemies weapons where so effective that they simply left nothing behind to inter.

Others would be met with the same excuse, but their bodies had been claimed by the various governments, organisations and groups within the Xcom project – samples needed to research and hopefully learn some means of defence against the various means that the Aliens where using to end human life.

In a battle that seemed to be the species very survival, morals would often be left to one side or regrettably ignored for another day on the clock.

Moving from cover to cover as their former Skyranger took to the skies, lifting dust and cinders into the air the squad moved north through the oversized tourist routes north from the centre alongside the bay area and eventually hit the outer edges of a single wide pedestrian street which made the central spine of the shopping centre, finding themselves looking down onto the sights of burnt out department stores, shops and stands with ominous alien pods dotted through the groups of lost souls who had been caught in the mixture of gasses and tendrils that had erupted from them after landing.

The air stank of flesh, carbon and ozone alongside heavy gusts of methane and sulphur.

It was at this moment of sensory overload that Bradford, their commanding officer otherwise known as "Central" finally started feeding them information that had been making it's way through a combination of civilian source, police and emergency services bulletins and direct combat reports from Her Majesty's armed forces that had been making the effort of holding the line before Xcom arrived to finalize the sweep and clear operation to rid Cardiff of hostile forces.

"Current estimates place between 20 and 30 X-rays in the combat area, a combination of Army and RAF forces are keeping them contained – primary objective is to eliminate all enemy forces, dead or alive." For what went as "briefings" from Bradford it was unusually curt and free from hyperbole, but considering this was the second major alien terror offensive in a month he had every reason to be on edge when his only task to be useful in was to provide what would be normally out of date combat intelligence instead of his previous role within the U.S Marines. Bradford always was a man who would rather have a gun in his hands than behind a desk, but war as it was said made strange bed fellows of us all.

"The enemy has placed the majority of their forces either within or around the shopping centre you are positioning alongside, last eyes on 15 minutes ago had civilians surrounded by enemy forces at an interior location within 200 meters of your current location. Approach with caution and rescue any possible survivors. Eliminate all hostiles."

The last few satellite pictures where blurred and without context, roughly round and white blotches moving at high speed with the occasional yellow bursts of light that had been caught as an afterthought.

Other marked targets where roughly human sized wearing some form of reflective green armour, but without the resolution available to discern further details it meant next to nothing in term of usable intelligence.

As the squad moved forward they burst through a set of double glass doors, their motion sensors disabled by the lack of electricity as they entered into a rough food court style area. A passing thought from Janes past passed into Garrus's present "no matter where in the world you are, a food court is a food court" as she pressed her American ideals onto her Cardiff location.

Moving through the tightly packed tables and chairs filled with scorched corpses and cold meals filled her gut with a cold, hard lump of disdain. How many of these innocents had been caught between fear and wonder before they where gunned down? The ultimate 21st century dream, being at ground zero of first contact before you and everyone around you where turned into burnt lumps of flesh and gristle.

The panic wouldn't have lasted long before fully automatic plasma fire cut down any who attempted to turn and run.

One of the many reasons the body count of the war ended up as high as it did – and the main reason that there where so few civilian leaks of the invasion, the aliens never left anyone behind to save their photos and videos and upload them to the cloud.

One half of the group split upstairs to the upper level, every member watching their corners and lines of sight as they split to gain better arcs of coverage alongside higher ground and overwatch fire.  
As these moments passed, fingers found themselves being brought unconsciously from being alongside triggers to directly above them.

The smell of fresh blood would to this to even the most hardened of soldiers.

The motions of violence swept through the squad, moving forward to various positions of cover as they could hear the distant cries of murder and death.

Silent professionalism took hold.

Ahead of the group, movement was sighted.

A round shape, white and reflecting light; surrounded by a group of floating dark orbs. All of them alien, together dark of purpose and intent.

Jane watched, raising her assault rifle to align the targets with the iron sights – knowing almost through instinct that the rest of the team was doing the same.

She never knew who it was that fired first – only that the massive clattering thunder of the squads Light Machine gunner broke the terse quiet before the storm.

Yanking the trigger Jane too joined the onslaught of vicious, bloody violence.

Sparks erupted off of the distant alien object as a drift of names and thoughts came to the fore of Garrus's memories, memories that did not belong to him. It would be an entire month before the names "Cyberdisk" or "Drone" would be given as a moniker by the long past Dr Moria Vahlen. Another three before Reaper rounds where developed by Doctor Shen.

A year before ablative vest inserts where replace by Phalanx, Kestrel or Carapace armour suites which would save hundreds of lives. Until then, the march of progress would be paved with the corpses of those who where felled and buried before.

As the sparks flew, brass casings fell and tracer rounds cut through the air. The aliens turned from their easy prey to those who presented more bite.

The floating white disk turned and unfolded into an airborne torturers rack of points and spikes as it returned fire.

Bullet casings found themselves being buried in blood as yellow bolts flew in return.

Jane dove from her cover as she found it incinerated by the aliens energy weapons, she had enough time to sight a target and lay down the barest level of suppressive fire as she heard a cry over the din of "BACK BLAST CLEAR!" and she threw herself to the floor again – an oily streak of exhaust fumes roared past her with a flash of heat.

Sound and Fury took hold – the rocket propelled grenade exploded ground zero on the side armer of the Cyberdisk's skin – the white alien alloys shredding into an incinerated mess of shrapnel and fragments.

Jane raised her head to see behind her – a third of the team where already dead, Perez had been grazed by enemy fire.

She had been on point – some leader she had turned out to be, she never saw four of her friends and comrades dying behind her.

Bare second of respite passed before the aliens resumed their attack – the drones that had been escorting the heavier Cyberdisk started to approach at speed, pausing in a frogstep style formation to unleash another bolt of energy in wild shots against their human opponents.

Thundering fire resumed from the LMG as Jane joined the fray once more – shouldering the rifle and breathing out for scant heartbeats before yanking the trigger in three round bursts.

As the drones fell, more aliens started to flow towards the fight, drawn by the sounds of combat and violence. The familiar sight of gray bulbous heads atop the diminutive figures of Sectoids as they too joined with the enemy with a rush of green plasma blasts lurching through the air, threatening to incinerate the ever depleting levels of cover against the enemy.

Which was precisely when the flank hit.

It would be months again after the autopsies that named their current enemies would name their assailants – the terrifying invisible cyborgs known as Seekers.

There where only three of them – three would be enough.

At first, no one noticed their arrival due to being so tightly engaged in combat, it was when Perez yelled atop the din for "ANOTHER RPG NOW!" that Jane turned and saw the squad member with the LMG and RPG launcher being held aloft, seemingly levitating in the air.

It was here she saw the almost shimmering thickness of the air around his torso, his arms where where held at unnatural angles and the fact that his throat was constricting itself as his eyes bulged – gasping for breaths he simply could not take.

He coughed up blood, which splattered against an object she could only half-see as she drew her iron sights at the _something_ that she knew was there and pulled the trigger.

Suddenly the something shuddered and spluttered into a very real, very alien cephalopod of obviously alien origin. It was a floating multitude of alien metals, tentacles and glowing yellow eyes that burst into sparks and dropped to the floor, twitching in defiance as Perez levelled his own assault rifle at the new target and putting it too a swift end.

The fight suddenly split in two directions – the Xcom team was ambushed between the Sectoid lines rushing their way and the Seeker's looking for any opening with which to exploit.

Garrus, forced to watch through the eyes of memory could do nothing about the death which continued to fly around his limited point of view as adrenaline continued to flow.

Another member of the team fell to the ground, he caught a stray plasma bolt into his right side which burned through one kidney, then through his spine and out the other side as he continued to fired his SMG until it clacked empty. In a final rush of defiance he took a grenade – pulled the pin and threw it at a pair of Sectoids before he finally fell to the floor and went screaming his was into unconsciousness and then the afterlife.

With guilt she found she could not remember Dante's name until the funerals that followed much later, long after the end of the Terror strike and eventual debriefings – even his own family would not discover his fate with the horrific nature of their hidden war.

In the moment however she screamed in blood, fury and vengeance as the second Seeker revealed itself from an uncovered angle behind the team, it opened fire with another flurry of glowing plasma fire which ripped the head off of the teams medic – the retribution that followed left the Seeker a smouldering pile of wreckage but the simple and horrifying maths is that both sides where downing each other on a 1:1 basis.

Which meant the aliens would soon be walking over their corpses and turning their attention to the civilians they where originally hunting – the civilians who where either cowering in fear or using the respite given by the rapidly falling Xcom team to flee as far as they could away from the fight.

The battle continued to assert itself however, as the human forces managed to drop the Sectoids – Jane herself placing a round into the skull of one being, only to watch another fall dead at the same time as if the puppet strings giving it life where suddenly cut for no reason. Not giving into momentary confusion she fired another trio of rounds into the second dead Sectoid to make sure it was not playing dead and then continued almost mechanically firing burst after burst with intermittent reloads providing the only real pause for breath or any form of focus on the fight around her.

Fear hit like a hammer, adrenaline and loss had been fuelling the fight for so long that she had lost track of time – her fingers passed through the few remaining magazines, three of which where still attached to the belt.. The rest of her ammunition had been spent downrange at the still advancing aliens, the thought of suddenly running dry after all this time was a solid brick of cold, deadly panic to the gut.

Arching up and over her cover she fired another set of three round bursts – only when she was certain she would take down a target rather than suppressing or disrupting, Jane could no longer afford grazing fire.

Another Sectoid fell to the floor dead.

Which was when Perez screamed in agony – to suddenly be cut short halfway.

The last Seeker had been scoping him out since it's comrade made the initial strike – and rather than moving in to constrict and slowly torture him to death, this final assassin followed the same tactic that had downed the teams medic moments before and unleashed a ream of plasma fire that all but severed Perez across the mid-section.

Globules of blood and gore flew into the air as what had once been a human being, a man, soldier and lover was now two halves connected by a few sections of skin, sinew and intestines.

He was dead before he had even hit the floor.

Loss, disbelief and pain racked their way through Jane as she went into bloody murder – firing every last round in the assault rifle into the seeker as it dropped to the ground before she then unholstered her pistol and emptied the second magazine into the seekers corpse before she then threw that to the ground and pulled out her combat knife and dropped to the floor – attempting to thrust the steel blade into the far stronger alien alloy skin of the deceased cyborg creature, screaming and crying as she went until her will finally broke.

Jane Shepard dropped the knife and crawled along the floor to Perez.

Or at least, the top half of Perez.

Cradling the utter half of his torso she rocked backwards and forwards as the battle continued around her.

She never remembered the second team arriving, or when the gunfire ended.

Memories of being sedated and taken back to the skyranger in a gurney didn't register.

Weeks later on her eventual re-certification to combat after fatigue treatment and psychological evaluations she fought like a hell-cat, being one of a handful that survived the "Massacre of Cardiff" but she never truly recovered from the loss of Perez, let alone the others in her team – she would always somehow be among the last survivors of the operations she had been placed within – be it against the Aliens or Exalt once they presented themselves for the fight.

The overwhelming sense of loss was all that prevailed and Garrus could sense it, solid and physical in this non-realm of memory and emotion.

"So, this is what you are huh?" He said aloud to no one, still riding through the left over memories and debris of emotions that combined to form Jane Shepard.

Utterly unaware of what the link was, and that she was learning almost everything in turn about Garrus Vakarian.

* * *

 _ **/-/ A moment from Scythe himself /-/**_

Okay four months between updates this time – I'm really bad at this consistent writing thing.

Yet again I was caught in the cycle of knowing what I wanted to write – but not how to get to the events I wanted to happen.

This has always been a chapter of two halves – so the Garrus related half will be on it's way sooner rather than later and then the story can continue in it's actual form (yay for character exposition chapters!).

Props to the people who recognise the references to trailers, quotes – and other characters from other franchises.

We are now a month away from this fic being up for a year, I'm hoping to get a lot more written in the next two months as I'll be feeding off of everyone else's drive to complete NaNoWriMo to get my own butt into gear with this story.

In the mean time, let me know what you all think guys and gals – I do look forward to reading the review notifications when I see them.

And until next time . . .

Tarrah for now.


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